Nidaime Kyuubi
by Snipern0sniping
Summary: Minato is saved by a enraged father figure who decides to use a different seal on the Kyuubi instead sacrificing himself in the process. Now, something is happening to the fox in the seal, the Kyuubi makes Naruto its heir. Huge AU, eventual Fem Naruto, neglected and hurt Naruto, smarter Naruto, Kyuubi Naruto. Alive but on long term mission Kushina and Minato. Uzumaki siblings.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello and welcome to Nadaime Kyuubi**

 **This is an AU and will contain:**

 **Fem Naruto, Kyuubi Naruto, abuse, neglect, and attempted rape.**

 **This is darker then I usually write so please enjoy a story told to me by the slightly less kind voices in my head.**

 **Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

 **"JUTSU NO NAME"** is a jutsu.

 **"Foolish monkeys,"** is Bijuu or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp

* * *

October 10th 50 VE (Village Era)

8:34 pm

Night of the Kyuubi

The night the Kyuubi no Youko attacked the village of Konohagakure was something that no one who lived through it would ever forget.

It was October the tenth, the air was rather warm for that time of year, completely free of clouds and a full moon far above. No stars decorated the black sky, as if they had given up trying to fight with the pale brilliance of the moon.

Most of the population of Konoha had gone inside earlier once it became dark out. The only beings still awake and alert were the Shinobi forces that protected the village. Of the Shinobi, only a few had more than a second's warning to look around for something wrong before a large explosion of white smoke erupted just inside the circumference of the defensive wall at the edge of the first row houses.

The Sandaime Hokage lifted his head from the pile of paperwork just in time to look out the window in search of the source of unease he felt pressing in on him from all sides when it arrived.

'It can't be…' he thought in frightened awe as he beheld the orange demon that was now silhouetted against the moon, casting a dark pall over a large portion of the village. Not a second later, one of the ANBU was by his side.

"Third Hokage-sama!" the man cried from his kneeling position, "It's the Nine-Tails. The Fox has come out of nowhere and attacked the village!" Fortunately, the Third Hokage was already prepared.

"I know!" he replied briskly as he fitted his gauntlets to his wrists and dropped his formal robe to reveal his black armor. "Hold it back, send the Genin and extra Chunin to gather and protect the civilians!" he ordered.

"YES, SIR!" the masked ANBU answered with determination before disappearing in a much smaller burst of white smoke.

The old Hokage felt worry stab through him as he looked out over the village and the lands behind the wall. His wife had been out there helping Kushina give birth. If the fox was here, something deep down told him he wouldn't be seeing her again. Not while on this earth. She was dead or he was about to be, that is what he felt.

Outside, the Fox roared in fury and lashed out with its multiple tails. Buildings as tall as three stories or more were reduced to nothing but ruins under its immense might. As per their orders, men and women in masks and regular Shinobi uniforms raced around the feet of the demon, snatching up anyone who might get in the way of this fight or the debris.

Some of the brave souls distracted the monster by literally throwing themselves at it. The Fox didn't even bat an eye as entire teams of Shinobi stabbed, cut, and used jutsu to attempt to slow its rampage.

The Fox gave off a burst of blood red Chakra when one defender got too close and instead of unleashing a column of fire as he intended, the man roared in agony before his body seemed to tear itself apart. Two others leapt in tandem only to be destroyed as the Fox's tail brushed them aside like flies.

Ignoring the hairless monkeys dying around it, the Fox moved a few paces into the village.

Suddenly stopping, it stared intently at the mountain that the village was backed up against. Opening its toothy maw, the creature collected black and white chakra just inside of its mouth. With another roar the black projectile was launched from its mouth.

As soon as it passed the beast's mouth, the black ball of death gained size until it was as large as a house and flew straight at the head carved furthest to the left on the mountain. Instead of impacting and either crushing the rock wall or exploding on impact, the black attack was stopped by eight lines of what looked like Kijin floating in the air, catching it like a net. The ball then seemed to disappear into thin air taking the Kijin along with it. With a flash, the entire mountain was then backlit by an explosion far in the distance.

"It's Minato!" a man shouted the obvious to his companions as they cheered the survival of one of the villages most beloved landmarks. Their revelry was cut short by the Fox's bark of rage and its renewed attack on the village.

"EVERYONE MOVE OUT!" the third Hokage shouted out to the Shinobi around him.

"SIR!" they all acknowledged as they charged to what was most likely their death. Around the feet of the Kyuubi screams rent the air as more and more Shinobi and the occasional civilian who was in the wrong place at the wrong time were crushed, thrown, batted, and even eaten by the Kyuubi as if they were little more than dolls.

The Sandaime quickly bit his finger and formed a hand sign, "Come forth, **Kuchiyose no Jutsu** Monkey King Enma!" A puff of smoke appeared as he slammed his hand down and a large monkey with long, white hair and sideburns appeared.

"Wow," Enma the monkey king said, looking at the spectacle in front of them, "Guess you need the Kongou Nyoi."

"Yes," the Sandaime acknowledged as the monkey was again covered in a burst of smoke. The Sandaime then grabbed the large bo staff the animal had become and launched himself at the Fox along with the rest of the Shinobi.

The wave of Shinobi swarmed the Fox, throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the monster. Kunai, shuriken, and Jutsu impacted the Fox's hide, ultimately doing little more than irritating the enraged beast.

-{}-

Looking decidedly disgruntled, the Fox marched five 'paces' to the right. Buildings came down under its wake and one building still containing a few civilian's half collapsed in a cacophony of screams. A team of Shinobi, too injured to be on the front line against the fox moved in to find survivors.

"Mom?" One of the injured Shinobi, a Kunoichi, turned to find her son bleeding from a cut across his nose. Looking around, she realized that the building she had crashed into was her own.

"Iruka," she exclaimed, falling to her knees so that she was level with her son. Her words bubbled a little through the unnoticed blood in her mouth, "Are you hurt?" Her son, Iruka stared at her in horror for a second before screaming to another nearby Shinobi who had just arrived.

"DAD! MOM'S-"

"I'll take care of your mother!" his father yelled over the noise, glancing down to see his wife starting to weave a bit as the blood lose started to take hold and make her legs unsteady. "You get out of here," he ordered.

"NO WAY," Iruka shouted indignantly, ignoring a new cloud of dust as the building across the street crashing to the ground. "I CAN'T LEAVE YOU AND MOM ALONE!" the boy shrieked foolishly. He couldn't leave the most important people in his world to fight that monster alone.

 **"CUT THE CRAP!"** his father shouted, having no tolerance for disobedience at the time, "It's our job as parents to protect you! Now get out of here!" Iruka was about to argue with his father when another Shinobi who wasn't too hurt to run snatched him from his mother's arms and raced for the nearest civilian bunker.

"NO!" Iruka screamed as the last image of his parents was seared into his mind. Mom was giving him a large fake smile despite the blood while his father stood tall with his back to his son, facing the inevitable as the Fox continued unabated through the lines of the defenders.

-{}-

Crashes and explosions littered the night as the Shinobi attacked the monster in their midst. A team of Shinobi attacked from the right, "Maruishi Tounyuu!" (boulder throw technique) all four shouted at once, causing a patch of rubble to be launched at the Fox.

With a roar of anger, the Fox slapped the animated stone out of the air. The impact shattered the boulder, turning the stone into a deadly rain of smaller projectiles that peppered the Shinobi forces around it. More screams lit up the night as their own attack wiped out the Doton users and their nearby allies.

The Sandaime was suddenly in the Fox's face swinging the staff his monkey summons had turned into with all of his might. The attack collided with the Fox just under its jaw bone, sending its entire head to the side and causing a dreadful ringing in its ears.

Shaking the noise from its head the Fox's red eyes glared at the old man, hackles raised and baring its teeth in a snarl of hate. The Sandaime could see his determined and afraid reflection in the beast's eye.

The Fox suddenly broke eye contact with him and reared up to howl at the moon as if it was in agony. The Shinobi looked at each other in cautious hope. 'Did the lord third hurt it?' was the question on all their minds.

Before they could get their wits together the Fox suddenly leapt to the side, moving so fast that for a moment it was nothing but a blur. Crashing through the defensive wall, the fox twisted around as if looking for pursuers. The Sandaime looked around for the reason the monster had fled. He couldn't see anything, nor did his eyes couldn't find his successor.

"WE'VE DRIVEN IT OUT OF THE VILLAGE!" he shouted deciding to take the initiative despite not knowing why, causing the Shinobi around him to roar with approval, "DON'T STOP NOW, TRAP IT!"

The Fox growled and roared in frustration as she was followed. Rearing up, the Kyuubi formed another large black ball over its mouth to disperse her pursuers.

 **"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"** roared a voice above and to the Fox's right. Before the Kyuubi could turn to look, a large toad appeared from thin air and crashed into her side. As the toad took ahold of her arm and crushing the Kyuubi to the ground, the Fox instantly started to struggle like a landed fish, her tails lashing the air or smacking into the amphibian's side in an attempt to free herself.

"IT'S THE FOURTH!" shouted one of the faster Shinobi that had just arrived on the scene alongside the third. On the toad's head was someone the Kyuubi truly hated, the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

"HOLD THE NINE-TAILS DOWN FOR A MINUTE!" the human shouted to the toad as he started running through a couple of hand signs.

"I MAY BE BIG," the toad answered as he strained to hold on, "BUT I'M NOT A MIRACLE WORKER!" The Fox under him struggled again, intent on getting her attacker off her body.

The Yondaime kept flipping through hand seals while he answered, "I NEED A SECOND TO GATHER ENOUGH CHAKRA TO TAKE HIM AND THAT BLAST OUT OF HERE!" he shouted down to the toad.

Beneath them, the Fox felt a burst of anger, not at her situation, but over the fact that they couldn't even tell the gender of the one they were fighting. Did she look anything like a tom? NO, her fur was the softest, smoothest, and shiniest thing in existence!

The Bijiuudama in her mouth had by then reached full strength, the fat lump of frog guts dropping on top of her had slowed the process. With the attack ready, she aimed it at the nearest group of Shinobi and let it fly. The second before she did, however, there was a flash and the Shinobi disappeared. In their place was a set of mountains that she vaguely recognized as some that stood a few miles from the village she had just been in.

The second she oriented herself, the Kyuubi was surrounded by chains that formed a gridded dome over her. More wrapped themselves around her body, tails and all, constricting her. The Kyuubi gave a massive heave and growled as the chakra signature in the chains told her who had did this to her.

"KUSHINA!" cried a voice to her left and she glanced down to see the hated red head that had been her former prison panting on the ground. She looked terrible, her body was trembling and her sweat was making her dress so wet that she might as well jump in the river and complete the 'bath'.

The Fox suddenly felt her heart clench as she saw the Yondaime kneeling beside her. In the man's hands were two cloth swathed babies. 'Why are those here?' she wondered, fear clutching at her heart. 'They could get hurt!' she cried internally as one of the bundles started to wail. The two humans were talking in voices too low for her to hear while ignoring the cries of the little one.

Instead, Kyuubi's worry grew; if she knew humanity then they would now try to seal her, maybe in one of those adorable mounds of pink flesh the Yondaime was holding. Despite hating the bald monkeys, they were simply too adorable when young for her to wish death upon. Sealing not only imprisoned her, it imprisoned the child in a life as a weapon, she couldn't force that upon baby.

A thump announced the arrival of someone else on the scene. Kyuubi looked over to her right to see that the old monkey they called the third had arrived. All three humans started arguing while she strained against her bindings.

"OII!" A shouting voice pulled everyone's attention as someone else joined the scene. The fourth monkey was the more confusing than the rest, his first action upon landing was to sucker punched the Yondaime.

Even Kyuubi had to sweat drop at the sudden entrance and attack.

"YOU'RE SUCH AN **IDIOT, MINATO!** " the older man shouted at the the downed blond, "ARE YOU REALLY SO IRRESPONSIBLE THAT YOU'D ABANDON MY LITTLE GIRL AFTER SHE GAVE BIRTH TO YOUR CHILDREN!"

Kyuubi narrowed her eyes, who the heck was this? The man was tall, wrinkles lined the monkey's face at the eyes and mouth, his hair was almost completely white.

Worry and fear suddenly screamed at her as her instincts told her that this man was probably a seal master, the fourth and her former jailer were already seal masters skilled enough to make her life a living hell, she didn't need another one there to help them take her a back.

She held no doubt that she was about to be sealed, maybe in a way that was worse than impaled on a ball in someone's mind if the three were going to work together. The white haired man suddenly gently took the two babies from their father, laying them down side by side.

"Hikaru-sama," her container spoke sharply, her tone was frightened and confused but she seemed to care for the newcomer, "Why are you sealing it in my children? I can take the Kyuubi back into my seal. You don't have to use them."

"No Kushina-chan," the seal master replied, "You are too injured, Minato-baka and Hiruzen-san are too weak to survive the process to begin with, and the seal I have in mind will require the life of the one who uses the seal. It must be the two of them since the benefits of splitting the Kyuubi for this seal outweigh the cost."

Kyuubi panicked completely and thrust at her chains in desperation while the humans argued below. 'Cut me in half!' she screamed both in her head and out loud in a feral roar that shook the ground. 'Screw what I said before, impalement sounded better than what these idiots were planning on doing!'

The seal master moved as if her was oblivious to her fear as he started running through hand signs. Slamming his right hand on the ground, the man summoned a octagon-shaped slab of stone with candles on the points and a large, padded alter in the center. The sight of the preparations coming together caused Kyuubi's panic to soar to new heights.

"We can find another way," Minato said, moving forward. The Kyuubi never thought she would love the blond monkey but in that moment if he could convince them otherwise she would have happily mated with him in thanks.

Kushina gave a cough and blood dribbled down her chin from the violent action drawing the attention of everyone. The white headed seal master looked at Minato without stopping his hand signs.

"We don't have time," he responded grimly, "Kushina-chan can't hold on much longer. I need to do this now while you two stabilize her." After a quick glance at the oldest monkey, Minato nodded his reluctant approval to the seal master.

As the Fox watched on, helpless as the man finished his seals and formed the final Tiger seal, her fate was decided when he shouted, "SEAL!" over one if the babies. The Kyuubi screamed as she felt her chakra get split down the middle. Surprisingly, it wasn't nearly as painful as she had thought it would be; it still hurt but it wasn't agonizing.

Her body shifted in size as half her power left her. The once great Fox was less than half the size she had been before and looked like she had lost more weight than would be healthy for anyone. She was so thin that her arm bones were poking out and ribs were clearly defined.

Before she could move, the chains tightened to her newly emaciated body. The Uzumaki woman gave her a tight smile as she made sure nothing could interrupt the sealing.

As her chakra flowed through the seal master, she could feel the Shinigami himself standing behind the man. She snarled feeling a vindictive sense of joy as she knew that at least this guy wouldn't live to boast about his success. Half of her chakra flowed through the man and into one of the bundles, causing the baby girl to start crying in discomfort as her coils expanded to contain the Kyuubi's might.

Moving over to the second child the man repeated the lengthy hand signs and screamed, "SEAL!"

The Kyuubi howled in agony as she felt her body explode outward into a cloud of chakra that then vanished, channeled through the old man's body and into the body of the second Uzumaki baby. The seal master stood on his unstable feet for a second or two as the seal suddenly took all of his strength from him and he crashed limply to the ground.

Minato looked on as Hiruzen rushed to the fallen Seal master and gently turned him over so that he was facing the sky.

Kushina started crying as the weight of the night hit her. In the space of a few hours she had given birth, had the Kyuubi ripped out of her (she still needed medical attention for that), held the beast down, and lost her surrogate father.

On the altar, the two babies started crying louder, gaining the attention of the adults.

"Now comes the difficult part," Minato said ironically as he stood up from his wife moved over to pick up both children. Raising a Jinchuuriki was dangerous and time consuming, Shinobi from outside the village would try to get one of his children alone. Having Jinchuuriki siblings would make things hard simply because they were siblings.

As he picked up the first child, a terrible idea came to him.

'Would that work?' he wondered, conflicted as he looked down on the child in his arms and the child still on the altar. Remembering the one eye of his opponent that night, he realized that this might be the only way.

Walking over to Kushina, he handed the first baby over to her and returned to pick up the second. "Hiruzen," he called over to the third Hokage, "I need your council." Minato walked back to his wife and helped her to her feet, she was unsteady and he had to take back their daughter before she fell over.

Hiruzen nodded, willing to offer any advice needed.

* * *

October 10th 50 VE 

11:05 pm

Night of the Kyuubi

As the threat of attack faded away with the sealing of the Kyuubi, the village of Konohagakure was returned to relative calm as most drew a breath of relief and others started working on making sure nothing else was going to crumble and fall that night.

The fighters started to make their way through the rubble strewn streets in search of beds to rest. Tiredly, they knew that in the morning they would all undoubtedly have to put aside their blades in exchange for hammers and saws to start fixing the ruined sections of the village.

Inside the Hokage building, on the other hand, was a scene of controlled chaos. The council chambers were filled with the various council members present in Konoha at the moment. Every clan head was there along with the heads of the hospital, academy, Jonin, and ANBU corps. On the other side of the room were Danzo and the elders along with four civilians who represented the various markets needed to maintain Konoha: the weapon trades head smith, import and exports manager, head of agricultural, and the head of the textile guild.

The two groups were seated on either side of a room while the seat at the head of the table was glaringly empty, awaiting the Hokage to mediate their meeting.

After waiting for over half an hour for news, the head of the Nara clan posed a question. "What if the Fox killed Minato-san?" Shikaku asked his fellows. He then winced as his suggestion brought outraged cries from the other side of the table.

"NO WAY!" the head seamstress and import manager shrieked at the same time while the blacksmith snorted out, "Not a chance!"

"He did fight the Kyuubi no Youko all by himself after he used his Hiraishin to teleport it away from the village," Hiashi Hyuga pointed out. "Even if Hiruzen-sama followed, he would have been fighting the fox on his own for almost-"

"For not long enough to get hurt too badly," came a voice from the chair at the head of the table.

Everyone's attention turned to the chair to see Minato and Hiruzen both suddenly stationed there. Hiruzen was looking at the fourth Hokage in a way that shouted reluctant acceptance.

"Hokage-sama!" the entire group was surprised to see both of them sitting there. For the civilian side, it was joyous that Shikaku's suggestion was wrong. On the Shinobi side, they were surprised that at least one of the two strongest men in the village wasn't dead from the encounter.

They didn't mean to be disrespectful, far from it, but they did know that these two had fought the Fox basically by themselves after the Fourth had teleported it away from the village. It was good news that they were both accounted for but it begged the question, 'what happened out there?'

As if sensing their questions, Minato smiled at them. "I'm sorry we're late, Hiruzen and I needed to discuss a few things in the aftermath of the attack," 'and get Kushina to a discreet medic.' Minato moved around his chair and sat down with a heavy sigh.

"The Kyuubi no Youko has been sealed," he announced, watching their reactions to this news.

All of the civilian council leaders looked up in shock while the elders narrowed their eyes. The head of the hospital sighed in relief since that meant they weren't going to be getting more patients after this. The Jonin and ANBU leaders were unexpressive.

The Clan heads' reaction were varied. The Nara, Hyuga, Aburame, and Yamanaka clans were silent as they expected more information to be presented, while Tsume Inuzuka laughed out loud and Chouza leaned back with a relieved sigh.

"When can we start looking for a suitable person to become a jinchuuriki?" Unsurprisingly, the question came from Danzo of the elders. All the clans looked at each other while they went over who in their own clans could contain the beast, as it would be an extremely powerful boost to their standing to have control over the human sacrifice yet a dangerous task for whomever was chosen.

"That won't be necessary," Minato interrupted, disturbing the clan's thoughts. "The Fox was sealed into a person already." As expected this brought a round of shocked exclamations from those assembled.

Raising his hand, Minato called for silence, "I know this isn't what most people would have wanted. Who the Jinchuuriki would be is an important decision that shouldn't be rushed both for the safety of the chosen and the village. However," Minato fixed each potential troublemaker with a glare, "there simply wasn't enough time to find someone better to take on this burden."

That did make sense, unlike the Hidden Sand or the Hidden Cloud they didn't have inanimate objects to seal the biju into temporarily.

"I assume," Homura, the male village elder spoke despite the younger man's glare, "that the beast was sealed within you or someone else of some standing and that the process was looked over by someone more experienced than just a barrier guard?" Everyone heard the subliminal questions, 'who is the jinchuuriki? Are they safe to be around?'

Minato shook his head but winced internally at the lie as he replied, "A baby who was convenient is the new jinchuuriki and if it wasn't safe then we wouldn't have brought him here."

Gesturing to Hiruzen, the Yondaime pointed out the bundle in the older man's arms. The bundle drew everyone's attention immediately. The head of the hospital almost released killer intent at the source of all the people suffering back at her hospital. The elders remained silent though something told them there was something wrong with Minato's story.

"This child is the hero of the night. Along with my close family friend and seal master, Hikaru Mainoru, he has saved us from the rampaging of the demon fox," Minato stated, looking for dissent in the civilian ranks, trusting the Shinobi side to understand what he was saying between the lines.

The Jonin commander saw the container and the thought of all the comrades lost that night to the thing inside the brat, it made his stomach burn. Checking himself, Masaru decided that he would keep that thought to himself for now.

"He is going to be placed in the care of an orphanage, under the direct eye of the ANBU," Minato continued, "I am also appointing Hiruzen as my regent while I take leave on an important mission."

That got everyone's attention to jump. Shikaku looked up as he readied himself for the most troublesome news of the night. If Minato was planning on leaving now, then the threat would have to be nothing short of village wide disaster.

"YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE!" the seamstress shouted while the Import/Export merchant started babbling about loss of bargaining points. The clan heads weren't all that much better, only Hiashi managed to remain outwardly calm as the rest started demanding to know why he would abandon them now. Minato let them bluster and shout, up onto about someone suggested that he was insane, then he intervened.

"I need to chase down the man who used the Kyuubi No Youko to attack the village." His firm tone that cut the rest of those talking off. "Before the Fox attacked the village, my wife, the previous Jinchuuriki, was giving birth to my daughter."

The council was shocked by the news; they didn't know that Minato was married, let alone expecting. "When a jinchuuriki goes into labor," Minato continued, "the seal on the beast inside is weakened and required me to hold it closed." He smiled fondly remembering his children before a frown overtook his expression, "Just after birth and before I could close the seal, we were attacked by a rogue Uchiha."

Clan head Fugaku jerked his head up in alarm and anger, "How dare you accuse one of my clan of this. No one has ever-"

"The man who attacked my family," Minato interrupted, "held my child at kunai point and abducted my wife to forcibly remove the Kyuubi from her body then used an advanced form of the Sharingan to force it to attack the village." At this point the council was torn between looking at the Uchiha in rage and their remaining surprise at Minato's new family.

Before anyone could start throwing ideas around on how to punish the Uchihas, Minato spoke up again, "The man only had one eye visible, the rest was hidden by a mask so he could have just been someone who stole an eye from a corpse somewhere." He looked around at the waiting council, "He also implied that he was Madara Uchiha during our fight."

"That's not possible," Fugaku insisted.

"We all know that Madara is dead," Shikaku pointed out, trying to calm the now nervous council members.

"All I know for sure was that his hair was the right color for an Uchiha and one of his eyes was a Sharingan," Minato answered. "I do not think the Uchiha clan was behind tonight. No matter who this person is, he used time and space manipulation jutsu and was capable of making the Fox attack us. He needs to be found and I'm the only one who's fast enough to defeat him when that happens."

"For this mission," Minato started, "I'm going to be leaving with my family for cover. No one would suspect me if I have a disguise and wife with a child since no one but those here even know I'm married, most will probably think I died tonight. The mission will take a long time, most likely even years. As such, we will let it be believed that I perished tonight fighting the Fox."

"So you want us to let everyone think you've died?" Chouza asked as he wrapped his head around the night's events.

"I'll need every bit a stealth for this mission," Minato replied. "The attacker could escape in less than a second and didn't seem to be locked to a Kunai like me, I need to either catch him off guard or when he attacks before I can even touch him and eliminate the threat he poses before returning to take up the mantle of Hokage."

"I suggest a quick break to digest and discuss these revelations within smaller groups," Elder Koharu Utatane suggested. They needed time to get their thoughts in order after the facts about the last few hours were laid before them.

The Hokage nodded, knowing that they would take this time for plotting but also knowing that if he didn't allow this then they would make it harder for him to leave. As it stood, leaving was going to be difficult and painful enough as this plan required him to leave Naruto behind.

The council wouldn't like this decision, but the elders will it, he was sure. Privately they were seeing the golden opportunity they were being handed as the third Hokage would be easier to handle than the fourth. The civilians trusted the elders' agreement to this plan and while they did it with bad grace, they accepted the plan as well.

The head smith was chosen to announce their support. "We don't like this plan," he started in his harsh baritone, "however, if this man is as big a threat as you say he is then we can see why it's necessary. We can only wish you the best of luck on this mission." Minato nodded to their half of that table for the support.

'Look out for them,' he silently thought to his predecessor standing behind him. He desperately wanted to turn around in his chair and say those words to his face but knew it would be stupid to do so. The Shinobi side gave their approval as well with Shikaku chozen to speak for them.

"While it will be troublesome for us when the story of your death reaches the public, we will support this decision of yours to hunt down the rogue Uchiha." He delivered his words in an unpassionate tone that clearly showed some annoyance despite what the words meant. Minato sweatdropped as the Nara's mood reached him loud and clear.

"Thank you," he said a little tightly as he stood. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready to leave," and with that, he disappeared in his renowned flash. After he left, the rest of the council broke up to return to their respective duties. Hiruzen left carrying little Naruto to find the matron of the orphanage. He didn't see the looks six people shot at him, or rather, the bundle they couldn't quite see in his arms.

* * *

October 11th 50 VE 

1:15 am

Night of the Kyuubi

At the Namikaze home, Minato arrived just in time to find his lovely wife Kushina was sitting up in bed, feeding little Mariko. The nurse who had been sitting by her side until Minato walked in had done a good job. Despite the late hour, Kushina looked a lot healthier than before.

Minato felt a sudden stab of pain and sadness as he realized that Naruto hadn't been breast fed by Kushina today, and probably never would now.

"Kushina," Minato said, burying the painful thoughts for now. His wife looks up at him and smiles happily.

"Minato-kun," she greeted, maintaining the smile covering her worry. "Where is Naruto? You ran off with him after clearing. He needs to be fed and put to bed." She turned away from him and gently pulled the now sleeping Mariko off her nipple to start swaddling her tightly.

Minato didn't know how to say it to her. "I," he paused as he thought about her reaction, "Kushina, I-"

"He's dead, isn't he," Kushina said suddenly, smile gone, "That's what you're trying to say. Something went wrong with his seal and now Naruto-" she clutched at her mouth to silence the panicked words spilling out her mouth.

When Minato had dropped her off at home and left with both Hiruzen and her son, she had started to think of hundreds of terrible things that might have happened to the both of them. Now that Minato had returned without Naruto, every single frightening thought she had been holding off since letting her son out of her sight hit her like a ton of bricks.

Minato rushed forwards to hold her as she cried. "It's alright Kushina-chan," Minato assured her, "Naruto is alive, he's with the Oldman right now."

Kushina stopped panicking and slowed her breathe as she fought to bring her emotions under control. "Then why isn't he here with you?" she asked after a moment as she rubbed away the tears that had formed in her eyes.

"Kushina-chan, "Minato started to tell her his plan, "I need you to leave the village with me." Kushina jerked her head up to look at Minato in shock; that wasn't about what she had asked him about.

He quickly explained his reasons, "The village agrees that I need to hunt down the man who caused all this. If both of us and Mariko go undercover, we can protect her and I can find him."

Kushina frowned, "That would just put Mariko in danger. We can't properly raise her on the road. Besides, Naruto needs us a just as much as Mariko since they both have some of the Kyuubi inside of them."

Minato shook his head, "The village needs to have a Jinchuuriki here to protect everyone. I know there are things that Mariko might miss out on when we're on the road, but she will be able to go to so many places, learn all kinds of things that she never could here."

He paused before adding, "We would be protecting the village by entrusting Naruto to Hiruzen while we train Mariko in the Kyuubi's chakra during the mission."

Kushina looked at him; she didn't want to raise one of her children on the road and leave another behind, but what Minato was saying did admittedly satisfy both their duties to the village and her desire to protect those within it, mostly.

"Please," Minato asked, staring into her eyes and giving her a pleading look, "Don't make me have to leave you behind. I need to go and Naruto at least needs to stay. If I'm alone it would be harder to hunt down the man who attacked you and pulled the Kyuubi out."

Kushina felt like tearing her hair out. She knew that most jinchuurikis were treated like weapons in most villages. She then paused and thought about it; this village had treated her alright, sure not all had known about the Fox inside of her but those that had hadn't treated her badly.

"I won't be of any help to you," she tried bitter reason, "my life was saved but my Chakra coils were damaged, the nurse said that it might be permanent."

"You know how to use the Kyuubi's chakra," Minato pointed out, "even if you can't do demonstrations we can teach Mariko, together."

She sighed and leaned back into her pillow. She never could say no to him. "We will have to pack lots of onesies," she said after a moment.

Minato smiled in bitter relief. Before talking to her he had felt like he was leaving a part of himself behind, but right now all he could feel was happy. He felt extremely guiltily about what he had accomplished, but he was still happy to know that at least he wasn't leaving these two behind with Naruto.

Standing up, he started packing. He wanted to be gone before day break if possible.

* * *

Around the same time, Hiruzen pushed open the door to the orphanage. Inside was a tired looking middle aged blond woman wearing a thrown on purple shirt and tan pants. The woman looked up at the sound of the door opening only to sigh.

The room around her had a large counter top where she did initial paperwork and received anyone coming or going from the orphanage. This floor was the only one tiled in soft tones of alternating pink and blue.

"Not another one. Who's this one belongs to?" She had seen far too many children made orphans that night.

"No one knows, Kodachi," Hiruzen answered smoothly, "He is the jinchuuriki that Minato created to save us from the Fox." Minato had wanted his son to be recognized for his role in saving the village and as such the Sandaime planned on making an announcement about it later, but as the matron of the orphanage, Kodachi needed to know first.

Kodachi blinked and then looked at the bundle in the old man's hands again. This was the source of all this night's suffering? If she didn't know any better she would have thought, it was just another baby whose parents had died that night.

"I need you to take care of him," the third Hokage said, giving Kodachi at least a gender to call the monster by. Slowly, the Matron moved around the counter and held out her hands for the child. Hiruzen softly deposited the babe in her arms.

"Don't worry," Kodachi responded, keeping her voice neutral, "He will be taken care of."

Hiruzen nodded. "Thank you," he replied, content in the knowledge that Naruto would be looked after. He had a speech to write to tell the people what happened here this night and what little Naruto's role in it all was.

-{}-

Kodachi waited until Hiruzen had left before going to the door that led to the "infant" section of the orphanage. She walked down the hall, past a room full of cribs, past a room that had large, extra thick carpet and a splattering of soft toys like plush animals and some plastic blocks. She didn't stop until she reached the end of the hall and turned left.

The hall had two doors at its end, both were white and looked rather heavy. Judging by the lock on the door, these rooms must have contained something important, the hazard sign on them also kept people away. The door she stopped at was one of these white doors. Despite the fact that it was in the back of the building, the door and room beyond looked rather clean.

The room was about fifteen feet by fifteen feet with a flat white floor and a medical bed as the only things contained within. Kodachi kept these 'isolated' recovery rooms for when one or two of the kids got sick with something that she definitely didn't want the other children to catch. When a child would get sick and the hospital would recommend rest along with medications, she would have them sleep here to protect everyone else in the orphanage.

Slipping into the room, she pulled up the guard rails on the bed and set the still swaddled baby down on the bed without a sheet. 'It doesn't need a sheet,' Kodachi assured herself as she took a step back, 'That damn Fox doesn't need anything but food. Anything else would be too dangerous to give it.'

Nodding at her mental excuse, Kodachi left the room. She didn't return for several hours when one of her assistants questioned the sound of crying she had heard from the back.

* * *

October 11th 50 VE 

6:15 am

Night of the Kyuubi

Minato stood with Kushina at the edge of the village. The place they were standing was by a relatively small hole in the wall caused by one of the Fox's tails when it had been strapped down in Kushina's chains. Nearby was the ruins of the Namikaze safe house that the third Hokage promised would be reconstructed by the time they got back.

Strapped into a Boba wrap around Kushina was Mariko. She was currently asleep as her mother's slow oscillations and soft humming lulled her. Besides the three of them, only the third Hokage was standing there.

"Take care of Mariko-chan," Hiruzen said as the fourth Hokage pulled a pack full of sealing scrolls onto his back.

"Of course I will," he replied with a strained smile, "You think I won't?" Hiruzen shook his head, he knew that the necessity of leaving tiny Naruto behind was tearing at Minato's soul and pulled the younger man into a hug.

"I'll watch over him," he said softly into Minato's ear, "Kakashi as well."

Minato was surprised by the hug, but returned it when Hiruzen spoke to assure him. Those two were the hardest things he had to leave behind and it helped him almost beyond words to actually hear Hiruzen's assurances. As he pulled away, Kushina moved forwards to give Hiruzen an awkward hug around Mariko before pulling back.

"I guess, we'll see you soon Oldman," she stated with a wry grin, emphasized by her still very pale complexion. Hiruzen chuckled as he held Kushina at arm's length.

"I expect to get messages from the both of you as often as you can write them," he ordered with a mock serious face before relaxing into a smile as he glanced at Kushina's torso "and perhaps a letter from Mariko when she learns how."

Kushina laughed softly. "I'll send you some of her drawings," she replied, reaching down to pet her daughter's soft head. Hiruzen smiled in affection at the young mother. It had to be agony to leave knowing that you were leaving one of your children behind. He had often left Asuma back at the village when he had missions during the war, but he had his wife Biwako to look after him and had returned as soon as he possibly could.

To leave Asuma in another's care for a long time would have most likely been too much for him to bear. He saluted the couple in front of him for their strength. The three of them all stood together in silence, none of them wanted to break the sense of unity or tension between them but at the same time they all wanted to say something to mark the moment.

When the silence started to reach uncomfortable levels, Minato nodded decisively. "We should be going," he said, looking at the hole in the wall. No one had slept that night and they needed to be over three Kilometers from the village before resting.

"Right," Kushina agreed, looking at her husband, "Goodbye jiji."

Hiruzen shook his head at her, "Goodbye, tomato head." Kushina didn't react apart from a sudden stinging in her eyes as she marched off towards the wall. Minato nodded to Hiruzen before jogging to get ahead of his wife and child.

* * *

October 11th 50 VE 

? am

Night of the Kyuubi

Inside the wall around the village, inside of a building, inside the council room, inside of the child inside the room inside the building inside the wall, was a cage. From within the cage a silted red eye opened and took in the surprising mindscape around her. The mind of a baby was often blank or unfocused as they simply did not understand the world around them yet.

The Kyuubi no Youko, however, was startled to find the world around her cage wasn't some blurry, washed out hodgepodge of colors and sounds like most would expect to see. Instead, the room she found herself in was a large traditional Japanese bedroom. The same one she remembered that her previous container and her mate had built in their safe house together.

There was even a copy of the fourth's seal against the wall where he had placed it in real life for emergency teleportation to and from the house. The same room she had accidentally smashed when the fourth Hokage had teleported the two of them to the house so that he could seal her into his two children, she realized.

Her cage wasn't even a proper cage in her opinion, it had walls with bars, true enough, but the top was open. She was lying in a crib of all things, an easy escape able thing for one such as her.

Smirking, she lifted herself to hop out of the crib only to find an invisible barrier on top of the crib. Still, it was a far sight better than when she had been locked inside of Mito or Kushina to be sure. Being stuck in this baby prison was still rather undignified, but better than her treatment before now.

Looking around some more, she realized that the crib she was placed in was where Minato would have placed the twins alongside Kushina before going to deal with her mind controlled rampage.

"How could the baby have memorized the room in such a short amount of time?" she wondered out loud. If he did then she was impressed, no baby she had heard of could contain that level of mental development so early.

Turning from her inspection of the room, the Kyuubi took in her own shape. She knew something hadn't gone according to plan since she wasn't split down the middle of her yin yang chakra. In fact, she was still comprised of both yin and yang chakra at about half a tanks worth.

Her soul was still complete she realized with a sudden happy bark. Whatever that old seal master had done, it hadn't split her spirit. She chuckled as she felt herself start recovering her chakra. Soon, she would be full again.

One problem with sealing a Biju in a human was that if you only sealed the chakra then the Biju would recoup what it had lost while the chakra away from the soul would eventually run out. They had created a jinchuuriki and a phax jinchuuriki out of the fourth Hokage's children. She chuckled as she imagined the looks on their faces when they find out that little tidbit.

"What's going on outside now?" she pondered, putting those vindictive thoughts aside for the moment. As if reacting to her words, the sliding doors directly across from her opened and she could see a wall beyond.

"-from the rampaging of the demon Fox." The voice of that stupid Fourth Hokage came, rather distorted, from beyond the doors. The Kyuubi settled down eagerly to listen. This host had just become the best one she had ever been sealed in, she could actually see and hear the outside world with ease.

As she listened to the meeting between the Fourth Hokage and his council, she became concerned. She agreed that the Uchiha had to die, she would have preferred all of them to die but her vote apparently didn't count, but for a father to leave their child to these wolves was just unacceptable. She could literally feel the dark emotions boiling inside of them throughout the meeting thanks to her empathic sense.

"Why don't you send someone else to kill him!" she shouted at the doorway into the real world. That hairless monkey was justifying leaving his pup while he ran off with the vixen with the excuse that he was the only one fast enough?!

"Maybe he has some practice running away from responsibility," she grumbled bitterly as the meeting ended and her container was taken by the old man to the orphanage. Her concern turned into extreme worry for the child as she saw the cold look in the matron eyes. Her fears were confirmed when the Matron left her container, 'Naruto,' she interjected his name, in a room all alone.

Kyuubi tried to look around the room but she couldn't control baby Naruto, maybe because his body wasn't developed enough to move of his own volition or most likely the seal prevented it, so she was stuck looking straight ahead at the ceiling.

An hour later her Naruto had soiled his diaper and been screaming for the last forty minutes. She decided then and there that if no one else was going to care for him then she would, he simply didn't deserve what was happening to him on her account.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading, any advice would be** **appreciated**

 **it helps silence that one voice that says we're unworthy of writing this.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Good day and welcome to chapter two.**

 **I really hate having a month or more go between chapters.**

 **This is an AU and will contain: Fem Naruto, Kyuubi Naruto, Abuse, Missing family, and one gender change.**

 **Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto**

* * *

-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

 **"JUTSU NO NAME"** is a jutsu.

 **"Foolish monkeys,"** is Bijuu enhanced voices, or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp

* * *

October 14th 50 VE (Village Era)

5:23 pm

Hiruzen sat in the Hokage's chair, rubbing his temples. These past few days just hadn't been his best on record. The third Hokage leaned forwards so that he could knead his forehead. He felt that he had failed Minato and Kushina already. Not even a week gone and he was sure he couldn't look them in the eyes.

The damned speech he made to the population of Konohagakure hadn't gone as he thought. They had taken the news that he was the Hokage again and assumed just what he had thought they would, but that was the only good part of the day. The people had been devastated when he hadn't answered questions regarding Minatos where abouts.

Then, as he talked about Naruto as a jinchuuriki, a person in the crowd shouted about the new brat with fox whiskers at the orphanage. That was something Hiruzen hadn't expected the citizens to know already. Surprised, Hiruzen's Shinobi hadn't gotten to the man soon enough to stop him from giving the rest of the information to the people listening.

They watched the bold man shout about how the monster had been defeated by the Fourth Hokage and punished in a nigh on divine fashion: by being turned into a human to serve the village and its people. The ANBU had gotten to the shouter by this point but the damage was done. People now had the idea that Naruto was the Fox in their heads. Worse, Hiruzen realized, the second idea accompanying the first thought was that he was there to serve them as penance.

Those kinds of thoughts had started rumours going down a dangerous track, one that could lead to the public forcing their issues or problems on Naruto because of his status, blaming him for things that he couldn't have done.

The boy wasn't safe from the more dangerous elements of his village with that kind of expectation hanging over him. What Hiruzen needed was something to separate Naruto from the people who wanted to use him for either their own purposes or simple revenge.

The third's thoughts were interrupted by the door to his retaken office opening, promoting a frown from the old man. Usually people would be announced by ANBU before bursting in. Things must be slipping more than he thought if two sloppy events could happen in a day. Looking up he was greeted to the sight of his old rival, Danzo, coming into the room.

"Good day, Hiruzen-san," Danzo greeted.

"Danzo-san," Hiruzen acknowledged, "What can I do for you today?"

"I would like to discuss the young jinchuuriki," the heavily bandaged man said as he slowly walked from the door to the chair in front of the desk.

Hiruzen frowned slightly in weariness, "What about little Naruto?"

"I want to take him on as an apprentice," Danzo said, surprising Hiruzen by taking a direct method. The old Hokage had thought that he would be a little more covert in his attempts to take control of Naruto's life.

"I'm afraid that, as you know, he is simply too young for any training," Hiruzen answered resolutely.

"I intend to start with training the mind first," Danzo explained. "When one is a child, the mind is easiest to train since it absorbs information and change so much easier than later in life."

"I know that children are easier to teach," Hiruzen said with a look, "but to deny a child the chance to enjoy childhood is basically a crime in and of itself."

"Sometimes a few must be sacrificed for the good of the majority," Danzo replied philosophically. "Is that not the purpose of having a jinchuuriki in the first place? It's what the village needs." Hiruzen shook his head at Danzo.

"What Naruto needs," Hiruzen began, firmly putting Naruto first to make up for his failure at the speech, "is to have a childhood, and to receive the respect of the village for saving us from the Kyuubi no Youko," he said

"Respect. Listen to yourself Hiruzen," Danzo snorted, "The people won't respect him because of what he holds. Let me take him and train him to be the greatest tool he could be, only then will people respect him. No one who saw the destructive power of the Fox would ever forget that, and they won't respect him for holding it. They'll fear him."

"Then we let him have a chance at the respect of his peers," Hiruzen said in a drifting tone of voice as an idea came to him.

"What are you thinking Hiruzen?" Danzo asked, suspiciously noting the other man's change in tone. "You look like you have a plan all of the sudden."

"I do," the third Hokage stated while standing up.

"ANBU!" Hiruzen raised his voice and looked to the spot he knew he would find the leader of his current shift of bodyguards landing. A man in a bird mask was already kneeling in front of his desk by the time the third had finished turning his head.

"Yes Hokage-sama?" Bird asked, bowing low.

"I have a law to pass that I want everyone to know about as soon as possible," Hiruzen commanded in a powerful voice. Bird tensed as he felt the authority bleeding off the Sandaime Hokage. "From now on, no civilian over the age of ten shall talk about the Kyuubi no Youko, and no Shinobi over Chunin shall talk about the Kyuubi no Youko to anyone else. Every piece of information about the Kyuubi no Youko is to be declared an S-class secret punishable by death, understand? No one is to talk to Naruto about what he holds." Bird gave a sharp nod as he finished processing his Hokage's words.

"What are you doing Hiruzen?" Danzo asked in a wary tone of voice.

"I'm trying to undo some of the damage done to little Naruto's future by that hysterical man at the speech," Hiruzen informed his old rival. "Now no one will be able to carry out his idea of ordering Naruto around because of his burden if they can't talk about him," Hiruzen sighed and continued in a serious but softer tone, "and this way he might get to have some friends his age at least."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Bird said before he Shunshin no Jutsu away.

"This won't work," Danzo declared resolutely, "It would be better for him to join the Shinobi forces and contribute back to the village as soon as he can befo-."

"Naruto will have the choice of joining the Shinobi forces when he is given the same opportunity as the other children," Hiruzen said sharply, looking at Danzo.

"You're going to risk him not joining the Shinobi forces just because he might not want to?" Danzo demanded, aggast that the Sandaime Hokage would take such a huge risk with their greatest weapon.

Hiruzen laughed, "Knowing his parents, I don't think there's any danger of him not seeking a career as a Shinobi."

Danzo gave the Sandaime a sharp, searching look. Whomever the jinchuurikis parents were, they had to have been placed rather high in the forces for the Hokage to have that much confidence that the child's decision would be the academy.

'Who was it? What it his father who was a Shinobi? No, Hiruzen said parents so both,' the bandaged man mused as he stood. "I guess that we'll just have to trust that sentiment," Danzo said testily, acting like he had accepted the Hokage's decision with bad graze, a tired sigh accompanied him as he made for the door.

'Just wait,' he plotted to himself, 'maybe once I've done some digging I'll know everything, I'll probably even know enough to get the jinchuuriki to come to me willingly. Orphans are easy, if I know his parentage then all I have to do is wait for when he's most lonely then pick him up with promises about them.'

"Danzo-san," The rather polite voice of the Sandaime Hokage stopped the war hawk from reaching the nearby door. He turned back to look at the village leader with a questioning expression.

"Something has been bothering me," the Hokage said levelly. "I was barely even done mentioning the burden being carried by our young Naruto, yet the man in the crowd had already knew where to find him and had made up his mind about the baby. Do you think it's at all possible for him to have been informed ahead of the rest of the population about the identity of the jinchuuriki and his location?"

Danzo's face was impassive as he answered, "I can't quite tell. There is a large chance that he wasn't mentally stable after the attack and he saw you with the child. Your speech brought those faults in his mind to the surface. He did imply that Naruto was the Kyuubi being punished by Kami-sama through the Yondaime Hokage. Conclusions like that tend to be caused by mental stress." Danzo paused as if considering, "Maybe he only heard and filtered the parts of your speech that promoted the conclusions his unstable mind had already made."

"I see," the Hokage said, "You don't think there's any chance that the council had leaked the information early?"

Danzo shook his head, "I believe that some civilian having a strained mental condition after an event like the Kyuubi escape is more likely than a spy talking or a council member accidentally grumbling the information too loudly about the jinchuuriki near where this man lives. It is a more likely scenario here." Hiruzen slowly nodded as Danzo left. He took note of the fact that Danzo had left out the possibility that someone had deliberately leaked the information.

* * *

June 21st 51 VE 

2:29 pm

Kyuubi smiled fondly in the privacy of Naruto's mind as she watched the little kit crawl around the room. He was only eight months old and already crawling like a pro! She couldn't be happier if Naruto was her own child. She did however frown when she remembered that he was crawling on hard tile instead of carpet.

'Soon *Sigh* he'll be growing up,' she reflected, remembering the first time she had fallen in love with a baby. Her first host Mito had given birth while she was sealed and she had felt the child growing inside of her jailer as the process had taken a lot of chakra from Mito. She had wanted to see just what the big deal was about the small monkeys that made everyone so gaga over them. So she had caused a little surge of chakra through the first Hokage's wife and had gotten something like what humans called an ultrasound back in repose.

She had pondered over the image generated by her surge in what could be called confusion, then curiosity, and finally adoration and jealousy. Babies, she had decided then and there, were simply the most innocent, adorable, things in all of creation. They were so small, delicate, and She had felt, for probably the first time in her life, jealousy of her host.

Now here she was sealed inside of one of those innocent lumps of adorableness. It was a rather exciting experience watching the process of growing up from the baby's point of view instead of from the mother's. Watching from Mito's seal had been hard since the damned woman had fought to keep even the slightest amount of her Chakra inside, but the Kyuubi had managed to get a few glimpses when she was over excited. She had been able to watch the woman's baby take his first steps, his first birthday, and when he had been potty trained. That had been a strange experience.

Her internal reminiscing was cut short by Naruto reaching the literal edge of his known world. Somehow, he had come to understand that the white section of wall with the funny protrusion too high for him to reach was a portal to an infinitely vaster world than the one he currently inhabited.

Kyuubi sighed as little Naruto pawed at the door like a cat or fox would have. As if responding to his feeble scratching, the door opened. Baby sounds meaning excitement, joy, and triumph bust from the child's mouth and he started sloppily trying to clap his hands with the world beyond now visible.

Kyuubi was, however, trying to identify the person who had opened the door. It wasn't around feeding time and Naruto hadn't been crying out with a filled diaper, which were the only events that brought the orphanage workers to this back room. These heavy boots in front of them didn't belong to anyone who worked at the orphanage either.

She tried to force Naruto's eyes up and was rewarded by his interested eyes starting to travel up the person's leg. Naruto's eyes widen in interest as he had never seen such dark clothes before as most workers wore light and vibrant colors. Kyuubi on the other hand was instantly on alert when Naruto's gaze reached the man's waist. Curiosity overwhelmed the baby as he saw a brand-new shape.

It was pointed, like top of the crayon he found in the corner before the tall thing took it away. Instead of a tube to hold onto like a crayon, this thing had two long triangles facing away from each other and had a hollow circle on the other side to complete the item. A tall thing the held it at waist level and it trembled slightly.

'Kunai!' a voice behind Naruto's head identified.

-{}-

The voice proved to be a horrible distraction though as Naruto unsteadily turned in place to try and find whoever had spoken. The voice had a soft tone despite the urgency, like the tall person who had been bringing the white bottle. No one was there and a moment later a sound pulled little Naruto's attention back to the tall dark thing that he had forgotten about.

The pointy thing had moved as the hand that gripped it lifted so that the pointiest side had a direct line of descent towards his face. The tall dark paused as the baby looked straight at the being's face. There were two bright brown circles that were leaking water on the things face, whatever this thing from outside was, it looked a little like himself Naruto half recognized deep down.

The man reaffirmed both his grip on the weapon and his nerve to kill the little abomination. "Sara would have been a year old today," the tall dark thing said as more water leaked from his circles, "she would have been, until you killed her." Naruto stared blankly at the man since the words meant nothing to him while the Kyuubi inside of him panicked.

As the man spoke, Kyuubi started pumping Chakra through the bars of her cage, but only a leak here and there could get through.

Unnoticed by the frightened Fox, the end of one of her tails brushed against one of the bars behind her. A line of Kijin appeared on the bar in question and the tip of the tail disappeared into it.

Suddenly, a burst of the Fox's youki flashed through the baby's body, concentrating in Naruto's eyes. The man gasped as the world around him bled out of focus, the only thing he could see were two red points of light. The monster's eyes had changed from blue to burning red. The civilian man needed no other urging, he thrust forwards with the stolen Kunai. He was going to kill the Kyuubi before it could stop him if it was the last thing he did.

-{}-

"Daddy!"

The man in dark clothes froze as the room came back into focus. Movement was restored as he cautiously looked around the new room, he couldn't believe his eyes. He knew this place, it was his house. He could see the kitchen through the doorway, where that voice had come from.

Fearing that this was a trick, but hoping it wasn't, the man moved through the doorway. His eyes found the source of the voice in seconds. Standing at the kitchen table was a little girl with black hair and brilliant blue eyes, his daughter, Sara.

"Come on dad," the… four, five-year-old said, looking at him. "We shouldn't be late to your parade," the aeration continued as she munched a cookie from the plate on the table.

"What's going on?" the man asked in confusion as he looked around.

"It's time for your parade daddy," the girl - Sara - informed him as if he was the one who was five 'and a half' instead of her, "to celebrate the day you killed the Kyuubi no Youko and released all the souls it had trapped inside of its body. Bringing us back to life." The apparently celebrated man stared at his daughter in shock.

'Could this be real?' he wondered as the girl started to frown.

"Are you alright daddy?" she asked, "Is the Fox's curse affecting your memory again?"

"Curse?" the man asked weakly.

His daughter nodded, "Yes, it did something to make you relive fighting it. The medic nin said that it's some kind of strange Genjutsu they hadn't seen before, and that it would at times make you relive killing it." Shaking his head, the man started weeping as he processed this information. He clenched his hands feeling torn. He felt that this couldn't be real but he wanted to be, wanted it to so bad.

"Yes, yes," he said as he broke, "The Fox made me forget. I don't want to forget again." He pulled his beloved daughter into a hug, tears of joy pouring from his eyes. "Please, help me remember these last few years together," he asked into her hair, her scent filling his nose and the feel of her shoulders just confirmed to him that this was real.

-{}-

Naruto looked up at the pointy thing that had stopped about three inches from his face. The distorted reflection of his open-mouthed face stared back at him from the surface of the thing as he decided on what to do next. After a second of staring at the reflective pointy thing, Naruto lost interest and once again realized something incredible. The white section of wall had moved, and he could see dark walls beyond.

Some half-formed thoughts in his immature brain wondered if everything beyond the door was dark like the walls and man who had come through them. Deciding to find out, Naruto crawled through the door and left the man to be discovered by worker who had been stuck with the assignment of feeding him that night.

Inside, the Kyuubi was puzzled. She had seen Naruto's vision move around when she had screamed in his head. She wasn't entirely sure what caused him to move, but the timing was rather coincidental with her shout. Her confused expression slowly turned into a grin that fit the animal she resembled.

'This could be, interesting,' she thought. 'If he can hear her now, then just what would he be capable of in the future?' She almost purred with the possibilities. She still didn't notice that the tail that had touched the Kijin etched bar was still a bit shorter than the others.

The missing baby wasn't too hard for the staff to find. Since he was only able to crawl, he had gone down the hall and into the other infant and toddlers' playroom. He was found sitting on his butt, totally enraptured by the soft carpet as if he had never seen anything like it before.

* * *

August 31st 53 VE 

5:42 pm

Looking back on her life, Naruto always had to reaffirm that the first time someone tried to kill her and her subsequent look into the world beyond her room was the most important event to happen in her life. It was the first time she had been made aware of the threat hanging over her life, and it was the first time she had heard her kaa-sama's voice.

Learning to run had been the second most important event in her life. As soon as he had been strong enough to, Naruto had learned how to get past his meal bringer and raced down the hall to discover the world he had only started to see the first time someone had opened the door for him. She, at the time he, had only been two years old.

Naruto wasn't very fast, but the volunteer who had been bringing the boy's food decided that he wasn't paid enough (or at all for that matter, since he was a volunteer) for this and just left the food on the floor. 'Maybe the brat will fall and hit his head on something,' the man thought hopefully as he left.

Naruto ran down the hall, growing tired very quickly he stopped to look around.

Curious about the new long room for him to run around in and at risk of running out of energy, Naruto stopped at a random door. The handle was over head, just too far for him to easily reach. Reaching up anyways Naruto was just able to touch the handle with his fingertips. Fortunately for the young boy, this handle wasn't a small circle like the one in his room but a smooth hook shape instead.

Bunching his little legs, Naruto jumped and was able to reach about an inch or so higher in the air at the peak of his jump. It was enough and his fingers closed around the handle to pull it down with his bodyweight. The door opened and Naruto let go of the handle to investigate yet another new world.

The entrance led into a room with a bushy carpet, the same one Naruto had found the first time he had escaped over a year ago. Naruto knelt on the floor before flopping onto his tired stomach. Reached over his head, Naruto ran his arms over the softest thing he could ever remember feeling: shaggy orange carpet, so very different then the tiles in his room.

'It's a horrible color,' a voice behind his head mentioned, abruptly pulling him from his euphoria.

"Who thar?" Naruto asked, looking around.

'...Can you hear me?' the voice responded after a moment.

Naruto nodded his head. He hoped that whoever was talking to him wasn't going to take him back to the room he lived in.

'Close your eyes,' the voice ordered. Naruto squeezed his orbs closed as he tried to obey.

After a moment, the voice spoke again, "Okay, open." Naruto opened his eyes and suddenly found himself in a new room. The walls were a tan color, replacing the painted comical characters in the toddler's playroom he had been in before. Looking down, he started to cry.

"Shh shh, it's alright. What's wrong, little kit?" Naruto looked up through a film of tears at where the voice was coming from.

"The, the, orng gone," he blubbered as he pawed at the matted ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry little kit," the voice said. Naruto decided it was a nice voice, but the orange was still gone as he continued to cry over the loss of carpet. "Come here kit, let me hold you." Naruto stood up and tottered slowly over towards the voice. He was still tired from his running around. After a few steps, Naruto fell over. He gave a little startled cry as he fell face first towards the ground.

Just before his face hit the floor in what would have been a very comedic fashion, a soft but very strong limb reached under his shoulders and caught him, pulling him back up onto his feet.

Naruto looked down at what caught him and his eyes widened in shock.

"Orng!" he cried out and hugged the fluffy orange mass in front of him.

"Hehe. Yes, I am orange," the voice said with an amused little laugh. Looking up from the warm orange thing, Naruto caught sight of a box with poles for sides as large as his bed back in his room. Inside of the box was an animal, maybe a kitty, AND IT WAS ENTIRELY ORANGE!

"Orng kitty!" Naruto screamed and abandoned the orange tail to race to the box.

The Kyuubi No Youko, feared as the bringer of death, the demon Fox, the monster who had destroyed entire villages on a whim, blinked in surprise as the little boy pressed his face against the bars.

'Kitty!?' she shouted in her own head in shocked outrage.

"I am not a kitty, Musuko," Kyuubi said in a kind tone, remembering to tone it down so as not to frighten the kit.

Naruto tilted his little head in confusion, "Musuko?" He hadn't heard that word before.

The orange kitty nodded, "Yes, Musuko means son. You are my son after all and I am your okaa-san." Naruto's eyes widened until they almost popped out of his head, prompting the Kyuubi No Yoko to giggle at his adorable expression. Then Naruto's face scrunched into adorable confusion.

"But, you kitty," he said in toddler talk. The fox in front of him nodded.

"There is a reason for that," she explained gently, "but I am your mother, Musuko."

'I'll be a better one than my former jailer ever could be,' she thought a little vindictively. Naruto blinked for a minute or two, then started to tear up. Soon he was blubbering, covered in snot and tears as sobs racked him.

"Sh, Sh, it's alright, I'm here," Kyuubi soothed as she extended a tail out between the bars of her cage.

"But box," Naruto argued, looking up through his tears and touching the cage, "I want, kaa-sama."

"Oh, my smart boy," the Kyuubi replied in a sweet and proud voice, "My smart, smart, boy, already learning such long sentences! I'm sorry, I can't leave this box. I want to leave just as much as you want me to hold you." Naruto sobbed before resting his head against the bars of the cage while the Kyuubi used her tails to stroke his soft head.

"I'm sure there's a way for you to help me leave," the Kyuubi said, using a great deal of care in every word as she thought about her plan. Learning this skill might be useful in the future, even if he didn't find a way to break whatever seal the old man had used. Naruto's head bounced up.

"Wat, can I do?" he asked, struggling to stretch his voice to speak longer sentences. His Kaa-sama loved him for using longer sentences. Kyuubi's tails hugged him again to show her happiness at his attempts.

"Nothing for now," she answered soothingly, "I don't think that the man who put me here left you the key to free me. So, the only thing to do now is learn enough about fuinjutsu to possibly open the box later." Naruto sat down to look at the caged fox.

"Fuiutsu?" he mangled the word but his mother knew what he meant.

The Fox nodded, "Yes, fuinjutsu. It means 'the sealing techniques. It is a skill used by some Shinobi to do all sorts of things including creating explosives, containing items, or sealing away powers." The fox hoped that this wasn't too much information for the child. It wouldn't be useful to him later if she overwhelmed him now.

"Learn, fuiutsu," Naruto said slowly, "help kaa-sama." The Fox beamed at her false son.

"Exactly," she agreed, smiling. Her thoughts, however, were tinged with unhappiness. He might be a baby now, but he was still a monkey and he would eventually learn what she was and hate her for it.

-{}-

That night, after the Matron found him and dragged little Naruto back to his room, Naruto didn't sleep at all. Instead, he stayed up talking to his mother. Naruto loved staying with the Fox, playing little games, hearing all her stories (there was a new one each night), or just feeling her furry tail rub against his head.

He didn't leave his room too often after that, only to search the empty (the staff kept him out of rooms that had other kids in them) rooms for abandoned toys. He took to spending his nights visiting Kaa-sama instead of sleeping. He would visit her until mental exhaustion overcame him and he would fall asleep next to her box with her lightly trailing her tails over his blond head and cooing until he was fast asleep.

Kaa-sama's stories were really cool and she never seemed to run out. She told him about Shinobi who were really stupid and bad, with red eyes surrounding black dots that could take control of your mind and make you do really bad things. Naruto shivered and prayed to Kami that he never met one of them. Kaa-sama always looked angry and sad whenever she told him stories about them.

* * *

Hiruzen frowned as he read over another report from the ANBU he had posted to watch over the Orphanage and, subsequently, little Naruto. Another person had tried to get into the Orphanage with weapons. This time around there had been a Kunai in the woman's heels.

The third Hokage let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair as he contemplated what to do. He still remembered the first time a man had made it into the Orphanage with the intent to kill little Naruto. The ANBU had responded to a scream from inside the building to find a woman whose legs had given out from underneath her as she stared at a man who had for some reason was frozen in mid strike against what had to have been a small, baby sized, target.

They had rushed the man off to the Torture and Interrogation office but hadn't been able to get any response from him, not even one of the Yamanaka could get anything out of his head. To this day they couldn't break him out of what appeared to be a Genjutsu that he was trapped in and he was placed in the Coma ward. After that he had tried to get a closer guard on the young boy, but Matron Kodachi wouldn't hear of it.

Hiruzen groaned in irritation (he seemed to be doing a lot of that whenever his thoughts went to the blond child) and rubbed the sides of his head as he remembered the shouting match in the council chambers the day he had tried to at least post guards inside of the building itself. The combined heads of the civilian group had all shouted him down for wanting to put "Dangerous, possibly unstable, men in a building full of children." He should help the ANBU clear up some of their reputations.

So, the plan of closer guards had been sunk after that shouting match, but he had contented himself by increasing the guard just outside the Orphanage itself. Only placing those with a reputation of swift response times and highly developed observation skills on this important duty. This measure had in fact proven irreplaceable as they had, over the nearly three years since the Kyuubi incident, stopped over thirty attempts on the child's life.

The trend of attacks was thankfully declining as more and more people were no longer trying to get to the boy. The masked faces of the ANBU frightened them off, but on the reverse side of things the attempts were getting smarter and more devious. The one he had just set down had most of her body into the Orphanage proper before Weasel had caught the glint of metal from her shoe. A quick Shunshin no Jutsu and he had caught the woman.

When he had gotten her to the T&I, she had turned out to be like most other cases: a person who had lost a loved one to the Fox, be it a son, husband, wife, daughter, uncle, aunt, mother, father, nephew, or niece during its rampage. A basic revenge tale that he hated hearing after so many reiterations. Hiruzen sighed as he flicked through a few more pages of reports before filing the latest attempted attack on Naruto away in its own pile. Sadly, a very large pile.

* * *

September 14th 56 VE 

8:12 am

Years passed for Naruto and they were arguably the greatest of Naruto's life. He had grown to the point where he could reach the handle easily and run all the way down the hall without becoming tired. Without a sun or calendar to make him notice the time, the only thing that made Naruto notice the years passing were Kaa-sama's stories.

They changed from pure stories into lessons. She would for example; stop part way through to ask him a question that made him think about how many Shinobi had died in her story compared to how many there had been at the beginning.

She was teaching him basic skills that she said other kids would know, however, he didn't like having to sit for an hour sounding out words for her in exchange for another story. It got easier with time and made Kaa-sama happy enough to tell him some very old stories (his favorite) when he finished an entire group of words so it was worth it in the end.

After his fifth birthday, she started giving him problems to answer. Addition and subtraction math was his new least favorite mental torture. Little did he know that a worse fate awaited him when he turned six: multiplication and division.

-{}-

Kodachi suppressed a smile as she opened the door to the demon's room. She was sick and tired of having him greedily taking up an entire room for himself in her orphanage. The sick isolation room he had jealousy taken over was needed with the unexpectedly high number of sick kids this week. She had taken all the orphans on a little trip to see the park decorated in the brown, red and golden auburn colors of Fall and had stopped by a candy shop on the way home.

She sighed as she remembered passing a candy store and caving in to the tiny, evil, and adorable faces of the kids who just wanted a lollipop or two. She hadn't had enough eyes to keep them all under control and so a worker who loved kids had helped her. The problem was that the worker there had apparently come into work without telling his employer that his little girl was sick at home.

He was a sweet man who didn't intend to do it, but all the kids who he had helped had developed the sniffles almost as soon as they had gotten home. The rooms containing toddlers and younger children were hit the worst and were quickly filled with the sick. The worst of the lot were in the five-year-old group. There were two little ones in the three-year-old group that needed to be separated from the others so that they didn't get worse and so that they didn't pass the disease on to the few others who weren't sick.

That's when a truly brilliant idea came to her two days later. The laundry needed to go out since it was full of diseased clothes in need of a thorough scrub and bleach. She might be able to convince the boy to play a game of hide and seek and then drive him into the basket. No one had to know that he was gone. The ANBU however, had kept her up at night as she pondered how to carry out her plan without them figuring it out but she had an idea for getting past them.

She admitted to herself that she was a little conflicted on the ANBU that had been stationed outside her Orphanage the last few years. She did want to keep them out of the Orphanage because she was sure that they would start looking over the children for potential recruits, but at the same time she also wanted their protective presence for the children's sake. The balance between the two states she had managed to create was that the ANBU never came inside the building because she had the civilian council keep them out and they protected the building for free because the Fox was inside.

Their presence made the roads just around her Orphanage the safest and most well watched ones in Konoha. She would have to be very stealthy when she left with the fox brat until she was a few streets away from here. If she succeeded in getting past them without raising the alarm, then there wouldn't be a reason for them to leave the area for a long time. Her plan solved all her problems, including how to get the room back for the sick kids. She just needed to get him into the basket.

Poking her head inside, she found a disquieting sight. The demon was sitting on his bed with his eyes closed, lying in wait if she had to guess. Taking a deep breath, Kodachi moved into the room and used the basket to poke at the boy from a distance. No response.

"Hey! Get up!" she said loudly. No response. He had to be asleep. Well, this worked in her favor since now she didn't even need to trick the demon into the basket. Putting the large basket down on the bed next to the boy, she grabbed him under the arms and lifted him into the basket. Piling the clothes over the boy's head and praying that he caught the sickness on them, she then picked up the now much heavier basket and strode from the room.

Kodachi pushed the back door of the Orphanage open and moved off down the road towards the far side of the village. Cheerfully nodding at the ANBU stationed across the way, she moved off quickly so as to keep the contents of her basket from close examination. She had walked this rout every time there had been laundry to do so hopefully the familiarity of her actions should let her slip past the guards.

Shockingly enough it did. People, even ANBU, recognize patterns. Her actions fell within a previously set pattern of movement and hence was ignored. As she moved off farther down the road, she passed several open lots on her way down the road that had been created by the Fox's footfalls and reconstruction in recent years.

Looking at them, she felt a shudder pass through her as she was reminded just how close the Orphanage had come to being crushed that night. Each one reinforced her decision that the thing in her basket needed to be gone, if not dead. Striding through the village, she felt like a hero, like the second coming of the Yondaime Hokage. He started this monster's destruction by trapping it as a child and now someone was going to finish it off once and for all.

True, it was sad that it looked so innocent and that she had to do it in a way that wouldn't let her confirm that it had died in case of an investigation, but she was sure it would die where she was dropping it off.

"Huh!? HEY, WHE-!"

Kodachi suddenly set down and punched her 'laundry' and felt something give a little under her fist. The pain in her knuckles was excruciating, but she didn't feel it as she looked around for anyone that might have heard. The road was empty, but she hastened to get to her destination before anyone investigated the childlike screams in the area anyways. She wasn't far enough away from the orphanage for her tastes.

Down the main street for a bit, left onto a side street for a mile. She quickly left the village proper and arrived in the much larger clans' grounds. Finally, turning to the right at a bend, she darted down the road and let a grin creep onto her face as her destination came into sight: Senju Clan Forest.

The First Hokage was famous for his wood release that allowed him to trap the Biju themselves. The forest that surrounded the clan's compound itself had been created by the legendary man, ergo it would make the most fitting place to end the Fox's life, Kodachi rationalized. The road ended in a cross, with the right and left going off in either direction while the way directly in front of her was marked with an arch woven out of the living trees. The clan wall along the roadside was made from the tall, tightly woven hedges, giving the land beyond a similar appearance as a private woodland forest instead of a clan's grounds.

Kodachi walked through the arch in the trees and into a place that many people argued as sacred. The hard road that she traveled soon became a gravel path as she entered the tree wall. Everywhere except for the road itself was lush and green despite the time of year. She shivered as even a civilian like her could feel the thrum of power that permeated the area.

The forest had been grown on the Chakra of the first Hokage and his trees contained a little residual Chakra from their creation. This place was where the Shinobi had always come to take a few trees to make Chakra paper as the trees already had grown on Chakra.

The trees were all thick and dark just around the wall but gave way to sudden bright glens and woodland just a few dozen meters inside their protective ring.

Knowing that she didn't want the monster to get out easily, Kodachi kept on pressing deeper and deeper into the clan grounds by sticking to the road. Soon she could see the clan compound as the road terminated at the large building's locked gate. She didn't want it near the building either for fear of tainting it, so Kodachi finally abandoned the road and marched past the building to force her way through the undergrowth.

Grumbling about the branches, the murderous matron cursed the Fox more and more as she got held up in the bushes only twenty paces from the building. Her shirt was stuck on a branch and she couldn't get it undone with only one hand. Setting the basket down, she picked at the entangled blackberry branch before it came free and she could move again.

Looking down at the basket, she decided that she didn't need to hide it from sight anymore. Pulling the top cloth off, she was greeted by the unconscious face of the monster, his cheek badly bruised from her earlier ministrations. When she poked the darkest purple spot the jaw bone shifted unnaturally under her finger.

An injury like that would make it almost impossible to eat anything solid, and in the woods that alone would be a death sentence. For a moment, looking down on the apparently sleeping boy, she had second thoughts. She couldn't help but compare him to the others in the Orphanage. He was so close to the age that many kids in the Orphanage got adopted. Five years old or so, not too old and not too young, was when the child was most likely to be noticed by the visiting adults.

She stiffened up, strengthening her nerve. It was the time that most children left her anyways. She was just helping this one get lost as well. Her reasons though, didn't help alleviate the miniscule part of her that was profoundly shocked that she did this to a child.

'Not a child,' she reminded herself, 'the Fox.' She picked him up and slung the boy piggy back over her back and marched farther into the trees. She eventually came to a small clearing. There was a tree, a thick oak with lots of roots tangled across the ground in the center of the open area.

Moving to the mighty oak, the matron deposited the kid at the base of the tree. Standing upright, she looked down at the bruised five-year-old in an orange short sleeved shirt and black shorts.

'He wouldn't survive the week,' she thought as one last pang of guilt twanged inside of her. 'As it deserves.' she decided hardening her heart. She was long gone when Naruto started to move again.

* * *

"Uhhhh," Naruto groaned and rubbed his face as consciousness returned to him, then he wished he had remained in his inner world with Kaa-sama because his face suddenly exploded in pain as one of his hands touched his left cheek.

"AAAOW-!" his sharp scream of pain was suddenly cut short as the pain intensified from his stretching face muscles.

'Stop Musuko!' came his Kaa-sama's worried voice inside himself. She could almost feel the pain that monkey had inflicted on her kit and promised herself that she would kill it slowly.

'It hurts' the five-year-old blubbered back as tears stung his eyes and his hand tentatively reached for the bruise, looking for further damage.

'Your jaw is broken,' his Kaa-sama said with the note of worry growing in her voice, replacing her immediate anger. 'You shouldn't move your mouth at all or you could end up with an incorrectly healed mandible, permanently twisting your mouth.' His Kaa-sama sometimes needed to be told a thing or two about bedside manners.

'But how will I eat?' Naruto thought, his eyes widening in panic as he was suddenly trying to remember the last time he had eaten. It must have been forever ago because he couldn't remember and started to panic.

-{}-

'Don't worry, there is a way to fix this,' The Kyuubi said, nervously pacing the small cage. The only way she could think to fix this was to push her chakra directly into his mindscape, but the seal that was her cage was different from any she had seen before, with many different parts that she didn't understand and frightened her.

To give it a physical description, it gave off a dark, malevolent feeling every time she tried to affect the mind around her. The unnerving part about this box she was trapped in was that there was an easy out. She had finally found that one of the bars on her prison was weaker than the others, but there were markings etched into the bar surrounding the obvious weak spot: a trap.

But it was the only way out to help her kit. Decision made.

"Naruto, I have a way to fix your jaw," she said after her moment of consideration. The blond boy perked up at the sound of his Kaa-sama's voice.

'What is it?' he asked in his head to keep his mouth from moving. He had noticed an odd tone in his mother's voice that frightened him a little. Kaa-sama shouldn't be nervous about anything, she was too awesome for that. 'Will it hurt?' he added, trying to hide his own nervousness. Kyuubi smiled at her sort of kit in his head.

"A little," she answered truthfully, "but it won't be that bad. Afterwards, your jaw won't hurt anymore." Naruto clenched his little hands and sucked in a breath before putting on a brave face and nodding.

'Do it, please,' he said before his dedication wavered. The Fox blinked. She wasn't expecting Naruto to trust her to just 'do it' without even knowing what 'it' was. It was as if… she really was his mother. The thought sent her mind for several loops as she processed the shocking fact that he believed her, even though she was a Fox. He had completely believed her tale about her being his mother.

Suddenly she felt truly responsible for him, he was her kit.

Without any further consideration, Kyuubi pushed one of her tails against the bar she knew to be a trap and reached for her kit. Unlike the other times she reached around the bars in her cage, this was a direct alteration to the boy's physical body through his mindscape.

She felt the bar hold for a second, and then give. The sensation of a wet sucking tunnel coated her tail as it disappeared through the new hole in her cage. In the Senju forest, Naruto's eyes snapped open as a bright red/golden light surrounded him and he was engulfed in a wispy, almost flame like, outline.

Then the pain his Kaa-sama mentioned kicked in and he started sucking down air through his nose as he battled the pain's demand to scream and move his jaw. Kyuubi felt a pang of regretful pride as he managed to beat down the obvious desire to scream. As the cloak started healing the bone, Kyuubi suddenly felt a tugging on her tail, like it had been seized by a child and pulled on with all the pre-teen's strength.

Pulling back, Kyuubi was surprised, and a little worried, when her tail didn't come an inch closer to her. Instead, it started to pull a little harder away from her body. Looked back, she realized that she couldn't see her tail beyond the barrier of the bars, as if it had vanished beyond. As her breath started to become fast and shallow, the Kyuubi started flailing around. Rationality overcoming her panic, Kyuubi crouched down and leaned away to slowly pull her body back into the cage.

"EOURHRRRHP!" She yelped and growled at the same time as she suddenly jerked forwards. Glancing back, Kyuubi felt her body go cold as she saw her tail was now reduced to a stump. She only had eight tails now. Not only that, she realized while looking around, all the bars had gotten the same strange malicious feel to them that the one she had touched before had had. The trap seemed to have pulled a bit of her power away and this time, unlike when it had been ripped in half for sealing, she could feel that it wasn't returning to her.

'KAA-SAMA! ARE YOU THERE? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!' the frightened voice was Naruto, his voice a little higher in pitch from panic.

"I'm here and I'm fine," Kyuubi called back as she tried to think of what to say, "that… took a bit out of me."

'Thank Kami,' came Naruto's relieved voice, 'for a second, I thought I had lost you.'

"O-oh, you won't be losing me for a long time," Kyuubi reassured the blond in a overly confident voice. She paused though, these bars were doing something, and her tail wasn't regenerating, that was very worrying to her. "Now then," Kyuubi said, brushing the worrying thoughts off for a minute, "did it work?" Naruto slowly opened his jaw and then closed in just as slowly to feel for any pain.

'YES,' he replied before grinning like mad and jumping easily two feet off the ground. 'It doesn't hurt at all! I can eat!' Kyuubi chuckled at the cute scene he was making.

"Now," she had to interrupt her kit's merriment, "let's find out where we are."

-{}-

"Right," Naruto said out loud, looking around. "Someplace with trees," he started. He had seen a few trees from the windows of the Orphanage, "and cold. Are we outside?" He couldn't remember ever being outside.

'That's helpful,' Kyuubi drawled sarcastically, thinking that there was something familiar about the trees. 'By the way, yes we are outside. Welcome to the largest world you'll ever have to investigate Naruto,' she teased a bit, remembering his baby thoughts about each room being a new world. He pouted at her while she chuckled. After a moment, she had figured out what was bothering her about the woods. 'This is the Senju forest. The entire area was grown on the First Hokage's chakra,' she explained with a bitter note in her voice. She didn't like thinking about the defeat that led to her first Jinchuuriki.

"So, you know a way out?" Naruto asked, his eyes widening in awe of the place he was in.

'I think it's that way,' Kyuubi responded, causing Naruto's head to turn towards the broken path in the underbrush.

"Right!" Naruto cheered moving off down the path. "Hey," he continued after a moment, "What's that smell?" Kyuubi frowned and raised an eyebrow at the same time.

'Smell?' she asked.

"Aye, that smell of old woman and baby powder," Naruto said, wrinkling his nose as the smell got stronger the farther down the trail he went.

'I think… that this smell is the Matron,' Kyuubi replied after getting a whiff of it from Naruto's nose. That was surprising, not that the fact that the Matron smelled like that, but the fact that Naruto could pick it up was shocking. Only trained ninja could do that, or ones from clans like the Inuzuka.

Or her, she realized.

Also, Naruto was different, she could feel it. He was a little shorter, maybe an inch, and a little slimmer. She 'looked' at her kit. There was something different about his inner world that she couldn't put her paw on. His scent had also changed, she decided. He smelled a lot more like a fox. Naruto walked on towards more recent civilization as his mother contemplated these changes.

Looking back over her shoulder, she once again caught sight of the stub of her ninth tail. She couldn't help the cold shiver of fear that seized her.

* * *

 **So,**

 **Who agrees that the entire first five or so years of Naruto's life is both boring and terrible?**

 **Sorry for large jumps in the chapter but I couldn't think of what else to put in it and writing about him being isolated got way too depressing for me.**

 **And now, REVIEWS!**

 **Guest: She will be powerful, just not yet, and Naruto will have to train and work for her power like any other person does.**

 **DBlade59: I have plans for how Naruto's sister uses her bit of the Kyuubi's power. I think she would be like canon Naruto with Ninjutsu, only one or two skills she spams except she has her parents love so she isn't desperate for others.**

 **Guest: Thank you.**

 **DaMonkMan: First off Thank you for the advice. There will be a gender change part way. I wasn't entirely sure how good my story would be taken and so didn't mention it in the opening. I started off with those clichés because that was the story I wanted to write, one that interests me, but now I just have to start making it unique as a challenge. Before I started writing I asked some other writers in this genre for advice and they gave me the exact same warning about skills and time or in other words, recognize that training and natural talent is what makes someone strong not just one or the other. I have slower build relationships in my stories so I don't plan on a Harem.**

 **I respect canon and will follow it if my Fanon hasn't influenced it. I am putting my spin on the events, not rewriting an entire awesome story like Naruto just because I can. There will need to be an event to change the canon. However, I plan on having enough characters reasonably different from canon to change the Naruto world.**

 **Any advice like the awesome review above would be greatly appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Back from the dead and ready for chapter three!**

 **This is an AU that contains, kyuubi naruto, fem naruto, and one of the greatest examples of human stupidity.**

 **this chapter will contain a lot of child pain and blood.**

 **Something you guys should know; I had a friend look over the last few chapters and help me fix grammar errors. There has also been a little change to the first chapter, the identity of who sealed the Kyuubi in the twins changed a bit and Kushina has some long term issues from having the Kyuubi taken from her.**

 **Nothing too major, it made future plans much more interesting.**

 **Naruto is owned by Masashi kishimoto**

* * *

-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

 **"JUTSU NO NAME"** is a jutsu.

 **"Foolish monkeys,"** is Bijuu enhanced voices, or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp

* * *

September 14th 56 VE (Village Era)

10:12 pm

Heavy rain fell on the dark village of Konohagakure. Since the season was Autumn, the rain was fridged. While it wasn't snowing, the wind had a feral bite to it that ensured that it would put anyone who stayed out too long in the hospital if not freeze them to death where they fell.

For this reason Naruto couldn't stop. He staggered down a dark alleyway between two buildings that luckily didn't have any windows to let people look out and see him. He was glad for that and glad that no one was following him. He had had enough trouble from the villagers today. Looking down Naruto sucked in a deep breath before mechanically pulling another sharp thing from his body.

Naruto's mouth silently screamed in agony at the decidedly unpleasant sensation. It wasn't the worst thing he had felt today so he could keep quiet by alternating between biting down on his lips with his eyes closed and wide eyed silent screaming as he rode out the waves of pain.

'There, there, you're doing great,' Kaa-sama said from inside of him. The five-tailed fox wasn't all that good at comforting her kit, she wanted to hold him to physically touch him. She was never good with words and now couldn't think of what to say to help ease the pain.

'You're doing great, my kit, my strong strong kit.' Naruto held back his tears as Kaa-sama praised him for his strength. Whenever she did that he could remain silent. He had cried enough already.

Below the child's line of sight, the tiny hole made by the rough wooden spear point closed and healed without a scar. He hated them for this, he really did. Pushing against the wall, Naruto started moving down the alley towards his den. Today hadn't been particularly good to the young Jinchuuriki.

* * *

September 14th 56 VE 

9:02 am

Naruto hadn't liked when his Kaa-sama had teased him about going out and exploring the 'largest world' he would ever find. But he certainly liked exploring and walking through this forest.

Something about the way the light shifted through the various shades of green and gold at a single breath of the breeze both hiding and revealing hidden facets of the forested landscape captivated his attention. He felt like he could happily sit in the forest and watch the light shift forever.

Kaa-sama listened when he talked about the light and trees that interested him, but at the same time she kept giving him confusing and contradictory suggestions. One moment she wanted him to try running and jumping around and didn't tell him why, the next she wanted him to stand still and be as quiet as he could while sniffing the air.

He didn't mind running and jumping, in fact, it was like he had been supercharged somehow. He loved that he was faster than before, but the best part was that he could also jump very high. Maybe he could reach the tree branches high over his head with a little practice without having to climb the tree first. The whole standing still and breathing thing rather boring so he didn't do that for too long before returning to jumping around like a cartoon bird on chocolate.

-{}-

Kyuubi shook her head as she watched, amused and a little unsettled by her kit's actions. She enjoyed how enthusiastic he was, but the view was so shaky! She couldn't get a clear look at the world around the two of them since it was constantly moving and twisting as the boy enjoyed the forest. It was making her a little motion sick. As Naruto came down from another large leap, he decided on the spur of the moment to tuck and roll to dispel the energy from his tiny fall back down.

"Uhhg-" Kyuubi clamped both of her hands over her mouth as nausea worked had its way with her from watching the world spin. The Fox started getting a little unsteady on her feet before quickly closing her eyes to block out the sickening view through Naruto's eyes.

'Ah, much better,' she thought as her balance returned and her stomach settled. One reason she had started making her body bigger when she was young had been because she had hated the feeling of motion under her feet, riding boats had been murder to her composure.

Instead of dredging up her memories of the horrid methods of travel, Kyuubi focused on why she had asked Naruto to run about; The comparison of her kit's abilities from before and after she had lost a tail.

He was faster, stronger, and could smell better than a normal human. Naruto's sense of smell wasn't good enough for him to hunt on scent alone, but it was definitely a cut above the rest. He could recognize where a person had been standing if they had been there within the hour.

His speed was something else that had gotten better. Compared to the improvement in his sense of smell, it wasn't as large a leap, but it was still noticeable. A human could catch him, but it had to be an older person as despite being five years old or so, Naruto was as fast as a nine year-old in training.

Impressive for his age, but to those who didn't know much about children it wasn't notable. As for his leaping, that was much better. He was reaching at least three feet straight up from a standstill and was pushing four with a running start. It was certainly not normal for a child to do that without basic Shinobi training. She worried that people would notice it and blame her for it, or make their jealousy another reason to hate her kit.

Before she could decide what to do about it, Naruto reached the Senju clan main building and the road leading back into Konoha. 'Hey, Kaa-sama,' Naruto thought, rubbing his stomach and looking at the clan compound, 'I'm hungry, do you think there's there any food in here?'

"I don't think so," Kyuubi replied. She remembered from when she had been sealed inside Kushina that the only remaining member of the Senju clan had gone off on a drinking and gambling journey of self-destruction because she couldn't handle her loved ones dying. She hoped the woman never came back. "I think that building has been abandoned for years," she continued, coming back out of her thoughts, "Any food that was inside has been destroyed by now."

'Aww,' Naruto groaned in disappointment, 'Guess we'll have to go down the road.' He started following the trail without another word.

Sitting in her cage, Kyuubi shivered in anxious fear. She didn't want her kit to go outside this forest. It might be the home of the hated Senju, but no one would dare come in here and hurt her kit out of shear reverence. She was worried since nothing protected him outside of it. Kyuubi narrowed her focus to the window representing what Naruto was seeing, watching it like a hawk. If danger was going to find him outside of these trees, then she was going to spot it first.

-{}-

Naruto didn't know where to go. Upon leaving the trees of the clan grounds, he found himself at a crossroads. Looking to the right, he saw that the road continued unabated until it abruptly turned and followed along the walls of another clan's grounds. This one was walled in normal white stone with a red stone rooftop. Just in sight was the clan symbol, a V shape with an arc connecting the two sides part way down and a stylized flame in the center.

The other road curved to the left, hugging the tree/hedge wall until it disappeared out of sight. That way contained an open field that started at the left road and continued out along the third road for a long way. Finally, the path directly in front of Naruto smelled like people. There wasn't much to describe it apart from that simple fact. The way ahead was a simple loose gravel path with nothing but grass expanse on the right for about fifty meters before it ran into the aforementioned clan grounds while the left side was completely empty of everything except grass.

Following some of the sagest advice ever given to him, Naruto followed his nose and took the path directly in front of him. The road was boring since it only went straight forwards and passed mostly open fields. Whomever had set up that forest clan grounds must have really wanted space and quiet to make it so far outside the village proper.

* * *

Finally, after what must have been forever, or twenty minutes, of walking the child saw the buildings around the next bend in the road. Laughing with joy, Naruto picked up his pace to a run in search of food. The streets around the boy were brightly lit and colorful. The buildings around the street were large and varied, looking like they had been built or added to over the decades instead of built as one large construction or all in one design.

It looked like one large, confusing jungle gym to the young blond and he loved it. Naruto's Kaa-sama was also enjoying the novel sight, it was very different from the one she was more familiar with; seen from above as she walked through it. Being at ground level made her appreciate her former size much more.

There weren't many people on the outskirts of the village, mostly just a few apartments that people barely lived in at night and left for long hours at work during the day. As Naruto continued further into towards the center, the increase in people became obvious. Men and women from all walks of civilian life filled the street, bringing noise and simple yet content feeling to the flow of life in the village.

Naruto gaped at the crowd despite the low number of people. On this street were more people than he had seen in pretty much his entire life. In the orphanage he had been exposed to about eight various adults who had brought him meals and had seen, from a distance, small groups of kids about his own age that he hadn't been allowed to play with.

Here and now there were about twenty adults walking up and down the road, double the number Naruto had ever seen in his life put together. Looking up and down the road, he was a little disappointed to note that there were no kids. He'd love to meet some kids for the first time. Mentally Shaking the sad feelings off, Naruto started working his way deeper into the village.

'Where are we going?' Naruto asked Kaa-sama as he passed the first cross roads since he entered the village.

'I'm not sure,' his mother answered, 'We should start by finding somewhere to bed down for the night and then look around for some food.' Foxes, even large demon ones, were very meticulous about their dens, so that was high on the list.

'Can't we get some food now?' Naruto whined as he felt his empty stomach. The last time he ate had been forever ago after all. Kyuubi sighed inside of him.

'I don't know what we can eat right now,' she explained, 'I don't think your stomach is strong enough to handle raw meat and I'm worried that you'll burn yourself cooking, so hunting is temporarily not an option.'

'What about asking nicely?' Naruto wondered as he passed an open area in the village containing benches and grass instead of houses, a park he realized excitedly.

Kyuubi laughed at that thought. Humans weren't kind enough to just give food away to people like her kit, she was sure they would rather hurt him.

'What's so funny?' Naruto asked, not getting the joke.

'I'll tell you later,' Kyuubi temporized to keep how dark the world was out there from her kit. 'Now, we need a place to sleep. Try to find a snack of berries on the way, I'll tell you if there are safe to eat.'

'Okay,' Naruto grumbled as he obeyed his Kaa-sama and started looking for a place to sleep.

* * *

September 14th 56 VE 

2:40 pm

"Hey, who's kid is that?"

The woman who asked was tall, with sharp cheekbones and long black hair. She was dressed in dark pants and a cream colored long sleeve shirt.

Around her were her friends: a shorter, stout, woman that had an easy smile and loose blouse-pants combo, a brunette that was right in between the two others in height with a much larger figure than the others, and finally the leader of the group, a woman with blue-black hair coupled with onyx eyes and a light skin tone wearing a dark blue dress.

"I don't know," the Uchiha woman responded with a frown. The boy they were looking at was rather odd looking compared to the children around him.

The women and their children were all in the little park near the side of the village, the mothers sitting on a bench nearby watching their young play on the structure nearby. The child that had caught the first woman's attention was standing to the side looking up at the largest play structure, the one that all the kids were crawling over.

The park was mostly empty except for this group of kids. The only other people there were a couple and their pink haired daughter leaving for the day. The group of mothers and friends had decided to set up a play date here, letting their children spend the rest of the day running around before going back to one of their houses for dinner.

The play area of the park was a simple dirt space that was pockmarked with stubs of grass where the kids hadn't trampled the dirt to a state resembling rock. The climbing toys were set up as a set of large towers facing each other along with several other little fortifications spaced between them.

There weren't enough children to fill both towers, so instead the kids had taken over one and were calling it their castle. The group of women had to hold in a chuckle as the newcomer was stared at by the children on the structure. Those on the mock tower were sizing up the newest comer to their tiny kingdom as if trying to determine if he was worth playing with or not.

Since his back to the mothers, they couldn't get a good look at the child's awestruck face. All they could see was that he wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt that was probably too cold for this autumn weather. The mothers all collectively cursed whoever let their little one run around outside in so little protection from the weather.

His hair was blond, shockingly blond, as if it was made from gold thread instead of human hair. The other children were all like their mothers, black, brunette, and one dirty blond, making this slim child's hair extremely odd in the other kid's opinions.

After a moment, the 'intense' standoff between the group of already friends and the newcomer broke off and they decided to let the blond join in. The mothers smiled as their young let the strange child join. 'They are so cute when they learned to share,' their thoughts again acting collectively. As the little one started climbing the wooden structure effortlessly, the mothers returned to their conversations.

"I hear that Inochi's little girl pulled Shkaku's son around by his shirt when they were playing," the stout woman said with a giggle. The tall one laughed as well as she imagined the little blond princess of the Yamanaka clan dragging the lazy Nara heir around because she was bored.

"I thought the Yamanaka were supposed to be more mentally strong than physical," the one with the larger figure said with a playful smile, "I guess their next generations going to be a little different than ours."

"NO!" the Uchiha woman gasped dramatically, "Don't you dare start talking about the next generation. We're too young to start talking like old women Yayoi."

"Face it, Uriko," the tall one said sadly, "We're old enough to start talking about the next generation like old women." The Uchiha woman started glumly shaking her head.

"No, no, no, I won't believe it," she muttered over and over to herself as a dark cloud of depression gathered over her head. The others laughed as she tried to deny the inevitable.

"Don't worry," the stout woman reassured, "It isn't so bad being old. We've survived this long without becoming 'old women', so I don't think we'll need to worry about it."

"We certainly have survived a lot," Uchiha Uriko agreed with a frown. Five years since the Fox, and six since the Third Shinobi war, they had seen it all. Even at a measly twenty-five years old they could say their life hadn't been boring.

"Hey," the tall one spoke up suddenly, "is it just me, or does that boy have whiskers on his face?" That pulled the women from their reminiscing. Looking at the boy much closer than before, the women were rewarded by the child turning around so that he could clamber up the next part of the play structure.

"He does have something on his cheeks," Yayoi mused, tilting her head. Curiosity won out and as she gathered her Chakra, the ex-Shinobi mother activated her Sharingan. Her vision was much clearer now and she was able to get a clear look at his face. "Yes," she confirmed, "He does have little whisker marks on his cheeks."

"Is it some kind of clan mark?" one of the others asked worriedly. She wasn't sure how comfortable she was with those marks, they reminded her of the night she had lost her father.

"No," Uriko answered, thinking back on her lessons on the clans, "I don't know of any clans that have markings like that."

"Should we be worried?" the stout woman asked, a strange marking could be from a clan ritual or sealing something like Hyuga's eyes. Uriko poured more power into her eyes and they started to let her see Chakra.

"Hey, Uriko, are you alright?" the tall woman asked as she looked at their Uchiha friend. Uriko was slowly leaning back into her seat. Her face was paling very quickly and she had become as stiff as a board, her breath coming quicker than before. The other women had noticed their friends strange behavior and it set off warning bells in their heads. By the time her back had come to rest flat against the bench they women were ready to jump into action.

"Are you alright? Do you need something? What is it?" The group questioned their friend.

"He, I think that boy is the Jinchuriki," Uriko said as her Sharingan faded. The other mothers stopped looking at Uriko to gape at each other before turning to scrutinize the boy. He was on top of the play structure talking with one of the other boys, smiling with a huge grin that threatened to split his face.

"Are you sure?" They all asked at the same time. The small humanoid playing with their children looked rather normal despite the uncomfortable markings on its cheeks. Worry however, replaced their previous joint expressions of fear.

"No," Uriko said, "I can't be sure, but he has a lot of Chakra centered low on his body where a seal would be put, and he's the right age, so…" The other woman didn't need any more evidence.

"Hiroshi! Asuna! Kirito!" all of the mothers suddenly jumped to get their children. The boys on the climbing structure jumped to look up at their names and the blond one jumped as well as the sudden movement surprised him.

"Come on down, it's time to go home," the brunette mother said quickly as the children turned to look at them.

"Aw, do we have to?" the tall woman's son, Hiroshi whined. He loved this wooden jungle gym, there was an awesome little section in the center that was hidden from the watching adults so it made the absolute best spot for hide and go seek.

"Yes, you do, Hiroshi," the stout woman replied, "Come on Asuna, your father is expecting us home soon."

"Eh?" Asuna exclaimed. He thought that his father was on a mission. "But we want to keep on playing." He was sure that something was wrong if his mother was forgoing a laid out schedule, his mother liked to micro manage things.

"Come on, Kirito," Yayoi ordered with a fake smile, "I think it's time for us to leave as well." Kirito sighed and shrugged before he started climbing down. The others soon followed suit and the play structure was soon empty of children except the blond one.

"Bye, Naruto," Asuna called back as the group's mothers marched their children away from the park. The blond, Naruto apparently, smiled and waved out to them as they turned a corner and disappeared from his sight.

"Asuna," the boy's mother chastised her son before speaking to the entire group. "I don't want you to play with that boy anymore." She commanded as the other mothers nodded in agreement to their own child.

Asuna tilted his head and blinked at his mom, confused as to why she had said that. Asuna had problems with getting along with the other dim children his own age. His mother at first had to all but force him to be friends with Hiroshi and Kirito.

"But why?" Kirito asked the question on all their minds. Naruto had been a little shy and weird at first but his enthusiasm had been honest and funny, so they had warmed up to him quickly. He had even volunteered to fill the last roll in their game even though no one else wanted the girls part.

"He's a bad person," Hiroshi's mother informed them, thereby siding with her friend and causing the boys to jerk their heads around to look at her.

"He's not what he seems," The only woman who wasn't a mother in the group said as she shuddered. Using her Sharingan after being retired for four long years was starting to give her a headache.

Asuna frowned, there was something off about their mothers words, like they were trying to avoid telling them something. He didn't get why they were telling them to stay away but not telling them why apart from vague answers.

Instead of pressing for more answers now, he just sighed, "Troublesome."

* * *

Naruto watched as his new friends left with their own kaa-samas. He had originally come to this park because Kaa-sama had said this was a place where they could find easy cover from the weather and maybe some food. The park was large with thick bushes and towering trees that helped make the area feel like there was barrier in between it and the rest of the village even though it was surrounded by houses on all sides.

The leafy bushes according to Kaa-sama were great for keeping things warm since the crunchy brown leaves were great insoltater… insolater… they stayed warm. Smiling to himself, Naruto started running around the park, picking up leaf bunches by the armful.

Going back to the play area, he started dumping the collected material into the 'princess room' Hiroshi had shown him inside of the tower, making it warm for the night. The 'princess room' was a small space that could only be gotten into by first climbing up and into, then down to the ground of the tower and was small enough that he could lay curled up comfortably.

It took almost half an hour for him to completely fill the space in the play structure, but it would be worth it according to Kaa-sama when night came. Naruto gave a little cry of joy as the last handful of leaves was placed inside of the castle, Naruto's castle. He liked the sound of that.

Now it was time to find food. Jumping off the top of the play structure, something his mom said never to do when someone could see him, Naruto started hunting for something edible.

* * *

September 14th 56 VE 

6:12 pm

Konohagakure was a village thrumming with emotion. All the Shinobi on the evening patrol could feel that something had disturbed the villagers, they just couldn't quite tell what. As the group of Chunin passed over the streets, roof hopping from one to the next, they saw little pockets of villagers gathering in stores that were usually only used to servicing Shinobi and in houses that were noted for their large rooms where people could gather and discuss things effectively.

"Something's up," the lead Chunin said, looking back at his subordinates for the mission. The group was made of Shinobi that would pass for civilians except for their Chunin flak jackets, under which they wore passably normal clothes. Combined with their dark hair and average features, the group could have been a group of friends out for a night on the town apart from the fact that they were jumping from building to building.

"Want one of us to hedge and go ask?" one of the smarter people in the eight-man patrol inquired.

"Hn," Lead agreed with a nod. It was in the center of the village, so it was most likely just some party that had invited far too many guests, but Lead couldn't think of anyone of note with a reason to celebrate today. The group landed on the top of a roof down the road from the meeting spot and one of his party hedged her clothes to look casual.

The group knew what to do. As their infiltrator, named Kiko, dropped to the ground and started walking towards the building, they moved forwards carefully keeping at least one person in line of sight. They weren't ANBU, so no one had code names, but their leader just had a tendency to ask to be referred to as lead when in charge. Kiko paused just long enough for her patrol to get situated before moving in to gossip with the people at the door.

After a solid minute of just talking and smiling, the apparent guards had become fast friends to the stranger they met just now and were willing to let her into their gathering. It wasn't as if they were doing anything wrong. A public service, that's what it was. The rest of the patrol stood on their respective guards, waiting for something to happen.

After ten minutes, their companion exited the building and walked down the street until she was out of sight. The patrol picked themselves up and moved to meet up with their member.

Realistically, there was no need for such over the top stealth, this was their own village after all, but it kept them in practice and accomplished their goals at the same time.

Their extra member was standing in a short, dead-end, alley just around the end of the street when the group landed around her.

"So, what's the news?" Lead asked.

"There's going to be a hunting expedition inside of the walls," Kiko said easily, "It's nothing that we need to get involved with, they're just enthusiastic about who will catch their elusive prey."

"What are they hunting?" Lead asked. It was a bit early for hunting since it was still early autumn, most animal would still have their summer fat instead of the girth most hunters liked on their prey.

"Foxes," Kiko answered with a smile. "Some mothers saw one in the park and they want to catch it themselves without Shinobi involvement. Sport and all that."

-{}-

Kyuubi no Yoko shivered in her little cage. Something was terrifyingly wrong, she could feel it. That in and of itself was a strange feeling, she was so used to being the cause of someone's fear that she had almost forgotten what it felt like to be afraid. She was on edge and needed to figure out why.

"Naruto," She called out to the mindscape.

'Ya?' Naruto responded, looking up from a berry bush in some other park than the one he had started looking in.

"You should start looking through the trees, there might be some late fruit left," Kyuubi said, knowing that that would take up most of his attention.

'Okay!' Naruto said obediently and started doing just that.

"Why am I afraid?" Kyuubi asked herself quietly enough that Naruto wouldn't hear her. "I might be stuck in Naruto, behind these bars," she started thinking out loud, "but I'm the Kyuubi no Yoko, nothing can even hurt me for long. I'm not even in danger of being hit thanks to this seal." Her eyes widened, "But Naruto is more than capable of getting hurt. Am I afraid for him?"

Sadly, there was a lot to fear for the child; People would attack him, the entire world want him one way or another, outsider humans would want to take her from him to empower their own village, but this village was supposed to have protection from that.

'At least until they send him out to die in battle using her power,' she snipped mentally before refocusing.

Inside humans on the other hand, were a much bigger threat to her kit. They were a lot closer and most of the 'protection' provided by the village was unreliable thanks to Madara making her attack on the village five years ago. Kyuubi paused and tilted her head.

'Why hadn't there been attacks already?' she asked herself. Sure, there had been that one man back when Naruto had been a baby, but there hadn't been any deliberate attempts to hurt

Naruto since then. Maybe the old monkey had been protecting her kit from afar? It would have been very easy for him to set up guards around the Orphanage to filter the people going in and with her senses diminished to what Naruto can hear, smell, see, and taste, she would have no way of knowing.

'He would want to look over his weapon,' she reasoned spitefully, but then how did the matron ever get her kit out of the Orphanage to begin with? Had she duped the other monkeys somehow? Either way it didn't matter, something was telling her that her kit was in danger.

"Naruto," she called out to the mindscape again.

'Ya?' Naruto responded just like he had before.

"We need to get back to the den," she ordered, searching the view of what her kit was seeing for danger.

-{}-

Naruto blinked and stopped staring up into the trees. Instead he tried to look inside of his own head, going cross eyed as he tried to talk to kaa-sama.

"Why? What's wrong?" he asked.

'Look forwards,' Kaa-sama snapped prompting Naruto to focus forwards instead of cross-eyed. 'We need to get back to the den because there is something wrong,' Kaa-sama explained to her kit, 'I don't know what it is but something is wrong. I can feel it in my tails and you can always trust your tails. Take what we've got and let's get back.'

"O-kay," Naruto said slowly, drawing out the word in confusion. The pile of 'what we've got' was only a handful of berries and a few mushrooms. He had enough for tonight, but that was it. Kyuubi looked at the little gathering. On one hand, it was enough for now, but the other hand mentioned that it was also autumn. Food would be harder to find as winter started coming, so tomorrow would also have to be spent looking for food.

It would have to do for now, her instincts were telling her run home now or it would be too late.

Naruto wrapped his berries in a little pouch made from his shirt, stuffed the mushrooms in his mouth and started walking. The sun would be going down in an hour anyway, it would be too dark to search for food soon.

* * *

September 14th 56 VE 

6:34 pm

People moved around the mob like agitated ants. The group, despite its status as a mob, was a well put together machine of organized people. The main body of the mob was moving in a group around the center of the village in groups of five or six, looking like any other group of young adults walking on the streets at early evening time, but they kept their eyes out for the Fox and another on the other groups just in case they saw it first.

The others parts, however, were moving far and wide around the village in groups of two or three. They were the scouts that were actively hunting down the Fox. The 'leaders' of this large group, about a hundred active hunters all told, were very happy with their strategist for suggesting the formation.

It provided quick results. A person ran up to the leaders group.

"We saw it," the excited man said as soon as he was close enough.

"Where?" the head of the five joint leaders asked, a smile gracing his face.

"One of the side streets," the 'scout' told them excitedly, "This way, Morino is watching him."

"Good," the head of the group nodded before giving a signal to the other groups around him to follow. As they started moving in one direction, the man giving the orders fell in with another part of the mob. "Thank you for the organization tips, Kiko. Now we can punish the monster for that night," he said as he passed by one of the woman in that party.

"You're welcome," the Chunin said with an easy smile.

-{}-

Naruto wasn't looking in their direction.

Consequently, Kyuubi didn't see them.

The child was tiredly walking down a nearly empty road, hold a fist full of berries and about three blocks from the park where his den was located when someone put their hand on his shoulder. Naruto jumped, turned, and looked up to see what had seized him.

He was an old man, maybe in his fifties to sixties, his clothes well made and looked comfortable for work clothes. His shirt was made from thick cotton and was a deep blue color, his pants were brown canvas with large pockets.

As Naruto took in the man and the man looked Naruto over, groups of about five people per cluster started coming out of roads and spaces between buildings to form a circle around the two.

The man was smiling at Naruto. However, it didn't put Naruto at ease, the stretched lips and rows of teeth peeking out from in between them did nothing to hide the scary look in the man's eyes.

"Hello there… kid," he greeted, grinding out what age group Naruto was as if the word was poison, "What are you doing out here so late at night?"

"I, ah, I'm, heading home," Naruto said, getting scared.

"Ah, I see," the man replied with a nod. The crowd that Naruto was just now noticing gathering around them let out a laugh as the man spoke. "Where is home for someone like you? A building with a loving mother and father? Fellow children? Maybe a sister and brother to play tag with?"

"No," Naruto said softly. He was officially frightened now.

"That's right," the man dropped the smile, his hand clenched tightly on Naruto's shoulder causing him to jump and squawk in surprise at the pain, "because you live in hell, just like all the other demons."

 **'RUN NARUTO!"** Kaa-sama shouted in the boy's head.

Naruto squirmed in the man's painful grip, surprisingly the man let go of him as he managed to pull away. However, the man had added a push that sent Naruto face first onto the ground.

Pushing himself up, Naruto found himself facing the way he had been walking before the man had stopped him.

The road had been filled by the mob by this point. They were standing in a circle with an open space of about fifteen feet in the middle, the crowd around him was about three people deep at its thinnest spot and almost seven at its thickest.

"You live in the dirt with the rest of the filth," the man said, pulling out a dented and dirty shovel from behind his back, his knuckles white from the pressure of gripping the crude tool. "We, as good citizens of Konohagakure, should help you go back to where you came from monster."

One issue with living in a Shinobi village; there are a lot of sharp things stockpiled. Almost everyone in the crowd held something sharp, from old Kunai to shovels, kitchen knives, and other household commodities. About a twenty people had forgone their wit entirely and held sharpened sticks that were leveled at him in case he tried to run towards them. Naruto paled as they all looked at him with almost hungry eyes.

"Get him," the man ordered in a sickeningly happy tone. At first, only five guys had the nerve to follow the man's order. They were armed with broken bottles and crude clubs. Naruto tried backing up away from them since they all came from behind the first man. His face was frozen in panic as they charged.

"AAH-!" Naruto suddenly found his voice and started to scream but was cut off by the first man cracking him across the face with his bottle. To their credit, the crowd seemed a little perturbed watching what looked like an adult male smashing a bottle across the face of a child. But, they were just as quick to remind themselves that that thing wasn't a child. This was the Nine Tailed Fox Demon that had destroyed the village five years ago; it was being punished, not beaten. As the first five moved in and obscured the scene, they started gathering their nerves for their turn.

After ten minutes or so, some of the men pulled back to catch their breath and survey their handiwork. They hadn't broken any skin, but they didn't need to. This part was about breaking bones.

Naruto's right arm was limp in the ground, bending at a spot that simply wasn't natural for the human body. Naruto was laid out on the ground, gasping for breath as he tried to not move. His unbroken arm was brought up and around his head while his knees were pressed against his chest in a fetal position.

"A-are you sure this is a good idea?" a young mother in the crowd asked in the lull. She could almost see her children in the way the boy was helplessly sprawled out.

"Yes!" one of the beaters said harshly and emphasized his words with a kick to the Fox as adrenaline coursed through him, "This will bring our loved ones back to life! Look at it, it's already releasing its unnatural powers," he prodded Naruto with his toe before grinning triumphantly, "Its arms already healed."

Not a single person in the crowd who had even a basic knowledge of Chakra was willing to correct the man about the 'unnatural powers', they were to happy to have another reason to push the crowd to kill the fox.

The crowd all focused on the boy, trying to see if it was true. The Fox's right arm had been snapped in two by the men when Naruto had curled up to protect himself and they had started to hit about the same area in unison. The people watching gasped as a faint red glow accompanied a whimper of pain from the boy and the bone seemed to reset itself.

The shouter laughed and stomped on the newly healed arm, breaking it again and shouted over Naruto's scream, "Can there be any doubt that this is the Fox? It uses the beast's' own powers." Stupid civilians and revenge blinded Chunin. The crowd bought the logic the adrenaline addled man was preaching and swallowed their remaining hesitations before large groups started scrambling forwards to get a piece of the action.

* * *

September 14th 56 VE 

9:41 pm

The one saving grace for Naruto that day was that it had started to rain.

The members of the crowd who had drew first blood were the first to notice. They were standing on the side lines to cool off as they let others in the mob got a good swing or two in. To outside observers, the mass of people looked like a festering pile of maggots wriggling over the best part of the rotting flesh.

Back on the edge, the three men and one woman looked up as the first fat drops started falling on them.

"Hey," the woman called loudly, "It's getting dark and looks like rain, do you think that'll finish the Fox off?" The mob, except those currently hitting the now mangled boy, paused and took a step back. The fevered frenzy that had clouded their minds and eyes was beginning to drain from them as they paused to look around for the first time in hours.

After a minute, those currently hitting Naruto also took a little break as well as they wondered if exposure would kill him.

The unofficial leader narrowed his eyes at the sky and then down at the pitiful monster. "I think that he won't survive the night," he decided with a satisfied smirk.

Naruto looked like he had been put in a blender. Both of his arms were broken, the left at the forearm and shoulder, while his right wrist laid flat against the back of his forearm. His shirt was torn to pieces and his torso was marked with almost innumerable slashes. Even worse, his belly looks flat and watery, as if his ribs had been broken to the point that they didn't define his chest anymore.

Legs were relatively unaffected, just broken at the knee on his right and his foot had been smashed to pieces on his left. It also looked like someone from the 'spear stick' line had broken his/her weapon by stabbing him in the thigh and leaving the tip in his flesh. The one aspect that had been utterly destroyed, however, was his face.

The crowd had worked his face over as thoroughly as a rancher would on a horse's coat. The jaw that had been broken before was now shattered, a piece of his mandible was sticking out of his flesh and into the boy's mouth. Cheeks and soft tissue were cut and an ear lay about three inches from his body.

Naruto's brow line was broken and his skull was fractured. A miracle had saved Naruto's eyes though they were dim; his pupils two different sizes, and one seemed to be misshapen by the broken bones around the eye, but they were still there.

For some reason, the one person who had cut at Naruto's neck hadn't managed to kill him, just leave a slash mark that touched on vocal cords before being given the highest priority and being healed. The mob had left the neck alone after that.

The leader looked down as rain started falling on the demon. Blood was thick on the ground and the shifting of so many feet in so little time had shifted the dirt road under him, creating 'mud' from the liquids coming out of the child-sized creature. Idly, the leader noticed that the Fox also bled red and pissed like anyone else while trapped in that form.

The red energy that the mob had noticed before was slowly stitching the soon to be carcass back together, but it was a thin stream of energy that would probably only sustain the things life for a few hours out in the autumn air and the freezing rain.

"I think we can relax," the Leader declared to all those assembled in resounding voice, "The elements will strike the final blow for us."

The crowd looked at each other reluctantly, as the rage left they felt just a little guilty about what they had done and something told them they shouldn't have been there. However the human mind is very good at ignoring things that it doesn't want to think about and they put the guilt out of their thoughts.

Giving those around them a tense nod, to assure themselves, they started to disperse, a few took the needed time to hide the blood flecking their arms and clothes. Soon, the entire area was devoid of people except for the one on the ground and the leader.

"I really don't have much time, the village patrols will be here in about half an hour, so please die quickly," the man said to the boy. The child just sucked air through his ruined mouth and tried to not suck down too much blood with every gasp.

"You took everything from me five years ago, you know that?" the man spoke as if he had all the time in the world, despite what he had said a moment ago. "Not just the night that you crashed your way through our village, but later you took my son from me." The man leaned to one side, shifting all his weight onto his right leg.

"He still hasn't woken up from whatever you did to him," the man started to tear up as he saw his son and granddaughter in his mind's eye.

"I'm not one of those that people that think that we'll get our families back by killing you." It had been easy to form the mob and getting what he wanted by letting them believe that lie. "I know that the dead can't come back, but now my son might just wake up." The man's voice was desperate, he had exhausted every other method of helping his son he could think of and now was grasping at straws.

The two people just remained there for a moment. Locked in silence as one tried to reaffirm the logic he had accepted when he had started this, the other just trying to take one breath after the next. Letting out a sigh, the man turned to leave.

"I hope you can find forgiveness," he said over his shoulder, noticing that tears were starting to fall from the blonde's cheeks, "I guess even monsters like you can feel some remorse."

Naruto heard every word the man had said, and he cried…

Out of rage.

As he struggled just to keep living, he kept shouting in his bruised and battered mind, 'IF I'M A MONSTER THEN WHAT ARE YOU?! WHAT KIND OF PERSON DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS!?'

What had he done to cause so much hate? What could possibly cause everyone to want to hurt someone like him as much as they had just done? Why? Tears stung the gashes on his cheeks as they fell, causing them to burn as they reacted with the open wounds but he couldn't stop them. He hated them so much. No answer came as the rain started to come down in ice buckets.

-{}-

"Naruto?" Kaa-sama's uneasy voice reached towards Naruto as he lay on the ground. The rain was coming down as if the heavens also wanted to scrub the boy from the ground.

"Naruto?" Kaa-sama's voice was scared. The room that was his mind was dark, and she hadn't been able to get anything out of her kit for the last ten minutes.

" **NARUTO!** Please, answer me."

'They hate me,' Naruto's mental voice was tired and sounded like it was on the brink of fading.

Kyuubi closed her eyes against the tears of relief and pain that threatened to fall.

"Yes, they do. It's all the red-eyed one's fault," she said bitterly.

'WHY!?' Naruto's voice caught Kyuubi off guard with the intensity it demanded of her compared to how weak it was a second ago. The Fox shivered. She didn't want to talk about the night of her kit's birth, but he needed to know, he was desperate and she knew in her bones that Naruto would keep on asking until she gave later.

"A red-eyed person used me to attack the village," Kyuubi admitted, "He placed me in a Genjutsu that caused me to destroy a large portion of the village. Those animals were the people who had lost family during my 'rampage', they want to hurt me and they think that they are doing that by doing this to you."

Naruto was silent as he digested the reason for his pain. Kyuubi looked around the mindscape, trying to find any hint of Naruto's thoughts. The problem was that Naruto wasn't thinking, he was letting his feelings talk for him, examining himself for an answer to how he felt about this. After what felt like an eternity to the Fox, Naruto spoke in a quiet, hushed tone, 'I hate them, these villagers, that red eyed man, I hate them all.'

"I agree, kit," was all that Kyuubi could say to that.

'Hey, Kaa-sama,' Naruto said to get her attention.

"Yes Naruto?" she answered.

'Can you heal me? Like you did when my jaw was broken last… wasn't that just this morning?' Her kit's words were halting and he sounded like he was fighting a wave of pain again, it was getting to be too much for him just to talk. She started to feel him fading, into unconsciousness or death she didn't know.

 **"NARUTO! DON'T GO TO SLEEP!"** she shouted the time-honored phrase normally reserved for the battlefield.

'But I'm tired,' Naruto replied, sounding weaker, 'and it's, cold.' Kyuubi looked around, trying to think of something she could do to save her fading kit. Her eyes landed on the bars of her prison.

she was afraid of them, she realized. During her musing earlier she had touched a bit on how she feared them. They were the physical representation of her seal and she had no way of knowing what they did. Already she had lost a tail to them and it hadn't grown back with her replenishing chakra.

She had lost a lot of power when her tail had vanished into them and she couldn't even feel where it had gone. However, her kit had been healed by her giving up a tail. Would it work again? Did her power go somewhere other than into her kit?

She really didn't have the time to answer any of these questions or to look of other options.

Kyuubi closed her eyes, swishing her tails around as much as she could in the confined space. The fox felt every hair on her beautiful tail shift as she swiped them through the air, before she plunged one into the bar in front of her. Immediately there was a disturbingly familiar sucking feeling, causing the Kyuubi to shake with disgust as her tail disappeared into the bar.

-{}-

In real life, the sudden influx of Chakra caused Naruto to audibly gurgled through the pain. A cloak of red energy exploded from the boy, looking like a beacon of red in the darkening night and causing the rain that hit it to sizzle. Under his skin, bones and their respective fragments vibrated and moved back into position, starting with the ribs surrounding the boy's lungs. As the power started to ebb, Naruto could breathe a little easier, but he was just as immobile as ever. The mob had done everything in their power to physically break him.

-{}-

Kyuubi breathed slowly as the strange sensation of pulling increased. She could tell that Naruto still wasn't going to be alright if she didn't put a little more into it. Sucking in a quick breath, Kyuubi pushed another tail into the malicious bar. Naruto could actually cry out this time as his skull healed and his mandible was pulled back into his skin.

Finally, Kyuubi felt like Naruto was healthy enough to get up and make it back to the den.

Leaning away from the cell walls, Kyuubi found that she couldn't pull her tails back to her body.

Jerking her head around, Kyuubi found her tails vanishing into the bar faster than before. Digging her feet into the floor underneath her body, Kyuubi strained to pull herself away from the bars.

It didn't work and she started sliding backwards. Panicking, Kyuubi threw her tail forwards and latched onto a bar on the far side. That tail started to vanish like the other two and it jerked her forwards as her tails pulled her in two different directions.

Capitalizing on this, Kyuubi gave one more push and managed to pull herself away from where her tails had been vanishing. She collapsed onto the ground in an undignified heap before jerking to her feet and quickly jerking away from the wall where her single tail had been disappearing. Finally, free from the horrible wall, the fox stopped to examine the damage. Her blood ran cold as she saw only five tails waving back at her.

"Naruto?" She called. If Naruto made it through the night then it would be worth it, "Naruto?!"

'I'm here,' Naruto answered. His voice was strange, it sounded a lot more like a gravely teen then a child's voice it had been before.

Kyuubi frowned as she worried, 'Did his voice not recover from the slash?' she thought. Permanent injuries were a rare thing on Jinchuurikis, but with the amount of damage inflicted on him just now, it was to be expected.

"Can you stand?" she asked her kit, relief and sadness evident in her voice, but both were restrained until she got her answer and she could relax.

'I think so, but it hurts.' That answer would work for now, at least until they got back to the den.

"Please try to stand, we need to get back to the den to sleep. That much energy being used at once will leave you too tired to wake up in the morning," she said gently. 'That, and you need to sleep to process what just happened,' she continued mentally. She wasn't a psychologist, but she knew that everyone needed time to process after an event like that.

Clenching his eyes tightly, Naruto slowly sat up trying not to jostle any of his remaining cuts. Looking down, he found that while his bones were healed, none of the cuts, bruises, or shrapnel wounds were gone.

"Gah!" Rolling over was an extremely painful thing to do, but Naruto managed it and pushed himself up onto his feet. Taking one shaky step, Naruto paused and pulled a piece of broken glass out of his hip. As he continued to discourage various shrapnel from causing him further pain, Naruto started walking back towards his den.

* * *

 **I didn't like writing lots of this chapter for obvious reasons.**

 **So responses.**

 **Guest: It goes down before getting better.**

 **edo123456: I was thinking about one OP ability but that's it, suggestions on what that might be are welcome**

 **Airog: Mokuton is a** **kekkei genkai right? If so then no.**

 **Guest: I don't think that Narutos sister would be arrogant, naive and proud, borderline arrogant, yes but she has been humbled during her life.**

 **Guest: Pairing has not been determined. I would suggest you wait a bit and let me write my version of people before choosing who you root for.**

 **Random Guest: Thank you for your advice on the proper way to call Naruto Kyuubis son. I honestly don't know Japanese enough to correct it myself.**

 **DaMonkMan: Fixed "fix whiskers".**

 **Streema: Getting back with the Namizaki family depends on what Naruto thinks of them, right now those thoughts are exceptionally low.**

 **Azaira: Thank you.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, here is chapter four!**

 **I should spend more time on this story.**

 **This is an AU and will contain: Fem, Kyuubi Naruto, Abuse in all it's forms, and a gender change in a chapter or two.**

 **Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto**

* * *

-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

 **"JUTSU NO NAME"** is a jutsu.

 **"Foolish monkeys,"** is Bijuu enhanced voices, or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp

* * *

September 15th 56 VE (Village Era)

11:03 am

Hiruzen Sarutobi paced in his office as he allowed the reports on his desk to draw an uncomfortable picture in his mind. All the men he had sent out last night had reported back with results that only caused his worry to grow.

Last night, there had been a large burst of Kyuubi Chakra. It had pulled him of his attention from his little orange book and pulled him to the window ledge, half expecting to see the same terrifying fox silhouette from five years ago. To his relief and confusion, there had been absolutely nothing there. No damage, no death, and as quickly as it had come, no fox chakra.

"ANBU!" he had barked, quickly being answered by the soft sound of his Shinobi landing on the ground behind him.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the animal faced man said respectfully in greeting.

"I want the Orphanage guards to bring me Naruto, there might be something wrong with his seal." He might not be a seal master, but he knew enough to check if anything was wrong.

"Bring me the boundary seal masters as well," he added as an afterthought. If he didn't find anything wrong the it than they should be able to find any issues.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the man answered as most of the group vanished in a cloud of smoke.

The seal team had arrived before the ANBU he had guarding the Orphanage had come back. That was the first sign that something was wrong. The seal team consisted of twenty men and women whose sole job was watching over and maintaining the boundary seal around the village walls. They were all a little older and should have been much harder to gather from across the village than one child that already had an ANBU guard.

At first all seal masters had been happy to know that they were going to be getting the chance to examine the Jinchuuriki's seal up close, but they had quickly fallen into a foul mood when the Orphanage guards finally returned with some bad news.

First, they had had to force their way into the Orphanage since the Matron tried to stand in their way. Second, the room the boy was supposed to be in was empty. Third, none of them had known the child had left the building.

Hiruzen had stood in horrified silence as the seal masters around him started getting angry that the boy was gone. They had been excited to look over whatever seal their friend Hikaru had placed on the jinchuuriki. Arguments over just what kind of seal he had used on the boy since it contained the Kyuubi, cost him his life, and wasn't the death reaper seal had filled their rec rooms as they tried to figure it out.

Hikaru had had a habit of experimenting with seals and had borrowed some scrolls from the only Uzumaki in the village. Some of the masters had been given the task of looking through his house to try and find his research to better understand the seal on Naruto, but his house had unfortunately been stepped on by the fox and most of his work and belongings had been destroyed, including the loaned scrolls.

Pulling himself out of his shocked state, Hiruzen had dismissed the very vocally displeased boundary team and had started a village wide search for the boy.

He hadn't slept all night and early morning since squad after squad had reported in. He was far too worried to sleep, scared of where he would find the boy.

The two main scenarios playing through the old man's mind were both troubling for the villages future: If someone from outside had taken him from the village then it would be nothing short of a disaster that almost certainly would lead to war. However, If he had been kidnapped by a vengeful villager inside the village then it was much worse for his village as a whole.

If it was the former, then groups of Jonin would have to be immediately dispatched to scour the land of fire until the people, or village, who took Naruto could be identified and the boy returned. This could lead to conflict with other nations.

If it was the latter, then it would take a full inquiry and search through the village to find who had taken the boy and why. If the village had done something to Naruto that shook his faith in the village then he would be less inclined to become a shinobi and it would be a lot easier for someone to influence him against the village in the future.

Hiruzen guiltily found himself praying to kami that Naruto had been kidnapped by someone outside of the village, as it would be the easier to deal with. Whichever the case was; this wasn't a good situation for the village to be in.

"Hokage-sama," one of his animal-faced ANBU captains stated, landing in his office.

"Report," Hiruzen ordered, hoping for good news.

"A large patch of disturbed dirt and body fluid was found on a side road inside of the village," Weasel reported, sharing the bad news.

"Disturbed how? Whose blood?" Hiruzen asked quickly. This was a rather disturbing piece of the puzzle of where Naruto could be located, he needed to know what both features meant now.

"It appears that a large group of a hundred or more were standing around or moving violently in a single area. The body fluid contained both blood and urine and was in the center of the disturbed ground," Weasel answered smartly, despite the disturbing news he bore.

Hiruzen felt his gut seize and turn to ice. "Has the owner of the body fluid been identified?" he asked, praying that his worst fear was wrong.

"No," Weasel said, "A team from the hospital was just arriving to test it when I came to report."

"I want who that blood belongs to identified and the report brought to me as soon as it has been," Hiruzen said sitting back in his chair.

Weasel gave a short bow and vanished in a Shunshin.

Sighing, Hiruzen rubbed at his forehead for a moment before standing and moving towards the door. He had been in this office for too long, every event since the burst of Kyuubi Chakra was starting to whirr around in his head. If he didn't go outside and get some air, then he was sure he would pass out on the top of his desk.

A low rumbling also indicated that if the air didn't get to him then the lack of food would. Time for a late breakfast.

* * *

September 15th 56 VE 

11:34 am

Kyuubi sat inside of her kit, watching the mindscape move around her, physically closer than any mother could ever be to her young except for before birth. However, she had never felt more helpless and far away from Naruto than right here and right now.

Her kit, Naruto, was asleep. His young mind, on the other hand, was actively trying to process his beating, trying to figure out why it had happened to him. She had told him why it had happened, to hurt her for what the red eyed man had made her do, but the little child was wrestling with the large philosophical question of why did people do things like this to others?

His semi-conscious mind was examining, cutting open, and dissecting every moment of the beating to figure out why. Every strike, bruise, cut, break, and word, trying to figure out why they used such painful things on a child. Despite his Kaa-sama's healing, his voice hadn't returned to the higher pitched tone like what other children had, it had been permanently changed to something much gravellier. His nightmares tried to find out why.

Naruto whimpered as he saw the flashes of people's faces as they broke something else inside of him. He didn't understand why some were smiling like idiots, apart from the obvious reasons, or why others looked so grim as they performed the same task. Naruto hissed and pulled himself into a tight ball in the leaf covered den as a memory of a javelin sized pointed stick skewered his leg. In his nightmare, he could still feel the pressure from the broken tip lodged in his thigh.

"Naruto."

A voice outside of the pain pulled at the boy's attention while the pressure in his thigh increased.

"Hey Naruto, are you awake?"

Jerking up, Naruto was instantly awake. The pressure in his leg didn't diminish, looking down Naruto realized this someone was poking him in the leg. "Who's there?" he asked as he tried to look around through sleep blurred eyes.

"Asuna, we met yesterday, remember? What happened to your voice?" The boy who had been the chief advisor to the king in their game looked down into the little space he had shown Naruto yesterday.

-[]-

Asuna had been interested about what his mother and her friends had said yesterday, about how Naruto was a bad boy and should be avoided. When they had gotten home he had gone to ask his father some questions since his mother didn't seem to be forthcoming on the way home.

Like he had thought, his dad wasn't home, evidence that his mom had lied to him to get away from the area. The park was a safe place, the only change from the norm had been Naruto who she said was bad but he hadn't thought was. The question then was; why did his mom think that Naruto was bad enough to break her micro managed plans just to avoid him?

Looking for answers, he had gone to the head of his clan.

Shikaku had been trying to get Asuna's little cousin, Shikamaru, interested in playing a game of Go with him when he had asked about a boy named Naruto. Shikaku had jerked his head up and fixed Asuna with a searching look.

"Where did you hear about him?" he had asked.

"I met him at the park today," Asuna answered truthfully, "Mom and her friends then came in and lied to us to get us to leave before saying that he was a bad child and that I shouldn't hang around with him. I was wondering why she would say that about a kid younger than me."

Shikaku sighed and rubbed his brow with both hands before focusing on his nephew, "Troublesome woman. What do you think of him? You have talked to him more than your mother."

Asuna had frowned as he tried to sum up Naruto's behavior effectively. "He's a fun person to hang around with," he decided, "A little shy at first like he didn't know what to do, but he was a great addition to the game we were playing. He was even willing to play the princess, since that was the only role left."

The clan head had nodded, hiding his thoughts on boys playing a princess, before pausing for a moment, "Then I think you need to get a better idea of who Naruto is before you can make an informed decision."

-[]-

So here Asuna was, checking the park in case Naruto was there. To Asuna's surprise, a quick check in the towers revealed that Naruto was holed up in the little nook he had shown the whiskered boy during the game.

The scene Asuna had walked in on didn't paint a good picture in the child's mind, even he knew that this wasn't where you found children at this time of day. Naruto was curled up in the fetal position, asleep but with his face constricted in a look of pain. The leaves surrounding the boy seemed to indicate that he had slept the night there.

"Asuna?" Naruto asked, rubbing his eyes before looking at the other boy warily, "Why are you here? What time is it?"

"Mid-morning," Asuna said, ignoring the first question.

"Why are you here?" Naruto repeated, leaning away from the other boy while trying to appear casual. He wasn't willing to risk going through anything like yesterday just because he had met Asuna before.

The young Nara looked at Naruto with calculating eyes. Something was wrong, Naruto had been shy yesterday, but now he was openly untrusting of him.

"I was curious about you," he admitted. He wasn't good enough at lying to get Naruto to believe him and getting caught lying wouldn't help him get his answers, "so I slipped out early and came looking for you."

"Early?" Naruto wondered out loud, looking over the other boy's shoulder. It was obvious that the sun was rather high in the sky.

"Yes, this is early for me," Asuna retorted with a touch of humor. "Why aren't you already up and going like the rest of the 'normal' people?"

Evidently that was the wrong thing to ask because Naruto jerked his head back to look at Asuna instead of the sun. His eyes and pupils were wide, obvious signs of distress. Naruto also pulled his legs up to guard his torso.

Asuna blinked at Naruto's sudden movement. He then noticed that Naruto's clothes were stiff and dark with something, along with being torn a lot more than they had been before.

"Naruto? Are you alright?" Asuna asked, examining all these facts in his head.

"Yes," Naruto said quickly, jerking his head in an exaggerated nod, trying to get Asuna's attention off his clothes. "I'm fine, why are you curious about me?"

Asuna was silent for a moment as he tried to figure out why Naruto was just saying that he was fine instead of telling him the truth. Then again, he realized that he was being rather forward with his questions to the person he had met just yesterday. "I want to know more about my friends," he said after a moment.

Naruto just sat there looking at him, or rather, looking through him. "Naruto?" Asuna asked, looking at the other boy sideways, "Are you there?"

"Yes," Naruto said very deliberately, "I'm fine. Why are you wanting to know more about my k- me?"

'My k?' Asuna asked internally, 'what Naruto had been going to say? Either way, this felt like a test, how does he want me to respond?'

"Because I don't make friends easily," he said deciding to speak honestly. "They're way too troublesome most of the time, but we seemed to hit it off rather well." Asuna paused before adding, "And my mom said something bad about you that confused me. My clan head, however, says to trust my opinion since I have more experience being around you."

Naruto flinched at the mention of Asuna's mother, but grew a thoughtful frown at the mention of clan head Shikaku. The boy then looked at Asuna, like he was searching him for something.

Asuna watched as the boy's mind worked. Naruto was rather open with his emotions as his expressions clearly showed off his confusion, anxiety, and wariness. These were all expressions that Asuna had seen on the faces of his dad's friends after something bad happened on the job. It didn't look right on the small blond.

"Okay," Naruto finally said as his face suddenly cleared as if someone had washed all the doubt away with a rag. "What do you want to do?"

Asuna frowned as he hadn't thought that far ahead. "Maybe go get some lunch?" he decided after a quick thought. He had his allowance money in his pocket and it should be enough to pay for lunch for the both. That kind of thing you did with friends he remembered correctly, playdates always had food.

"I know a Ramen stand nearby," he offered.

"What's Raman?" Naruto asked, having never heard the word before.

"It's a kind of meal made of noodles and broth," Asuna described, "They add all kinds of meat and vegetables to it so that it tastes good."

"...Alright," Naruto acquiesced hesitantly before standing up and leaving the little covered area. "Where do we go now?"

Asuna pointed down the street. "That way," he said blandly while he took in the mess covering Naruto. With the better light, he could tell that whatever it was it had crusted his clothes making them stiff and smelled faintly of dried urine. 'This is my friend?' the boy wondered incredulously as the smell was very off putting.

As if sensing the other boy's feeling, Naruto flinched away from Asuna. "Don't you have another change of clothes?" the young Nara asked.

"No," Naruto said self-consciously, picking at the mess encrusting the cloth.

Asuna for a brief second considered going shopping for clothes with Naruto instead of lunch, but realized that that was what girls did and he didn't have enough money anyways.

"Alright," Asuna decided to put it out of his mind for now, "Let's go to Ichiraku's."

* * *

September 15th 56 VE 

11:34 am

Hiruzen strode down the street without really seeing where he was going. Despite leaving his office, the Hokage's mind was still on the missing Uzumaki and it was still stifling him as if he had brought his office with him. His mother would kill him if anything happened to Naruto. She would kill him and serve his body as a side of meat, he could see it now.

'I'll have a miso with a side order of useless man added in,' the redheaded thought projection above Hiruzen asked politely from the faceless store owner. He cringed and shivered as his detail oriented mind created what he would look like as a side dish.

So, lost in his thoughts of the Uzumaki, Hiruzen didn't notice that he was walking towards the ramen stand that Kushina had frequented years before.

"THIS HAS TO BE THE FOOD OF THE **GODS!"**

Hiruzen was brought up short by the shout. Instantly he jerked towards the voice as if he had been pulled in its direction by a rope. Another voice, saying those words, played through his mind. They were just like the ones said by a young red headed Jinchuuriki a few years ago.

Forgetting his plan to go to the green dragon for lunch, Hiruzen instead charged down a side street in search of the most sacred grounds in Konoha to an Uzumaki. Down the street, round the bend, and up three blocks was a sight that stopped Hiruzen cold. At a small Ramen stand was two little boys, one was an awestruck Nara by appearance who was unabashedly staring at the second boy and his growing pile of bowls.

The sight should have filled Hiruzen with joy, even from the distance of two street blocks, instead filled him with realized horror as his keen eyes picked up an important detail. The second boy was a bright looking kid with yellow hair and a slight tan despite the Hokage's suspicions that he hadn't gotten a lot of sun before now. The Jinchuuriki, son of his successor and arguably favorite Shinobi, was gulping down bowl after bowl of ramen just like his mother used to.

But he was covered in dried blood. It was hard to see since his face and arms look like they had been cleaned off a bit, but without water to scrub himself it left little lines of reddish-brown on his body.

Something had happened to the boy and Hiruzen could regrettably see the evidence crusted over the boy's clothes and matting his hair from all the way down the street. His first instinct was to charge over and take the boy somewhere safe for an examination, but he ruthlessly crushed that urge as it might only frighten the boy.

'I need to get closer to him,' Hiruzen thought, unsure if he meant physically or in another way, before he started forwards.

As he got closer to the boy, Naruto appeared to subtly tense. It wasn't something all too noticeable, a slight hunching to his shoulders as they tensed and a more upright position in the chair, but it was as if he could feel someone getting closer to him. Hiruzen took those signs as an indication of possibly untapped sensor abilities, with his mother's clan he wasn't all too sure that wasn't the case.

The cook and other boy at the stand seemed absorbed in watching Naruto eat and hence didn't see the old Hokage.

-[]-

"Thanks for this," Naruto said as he put down a sixth bowl, "This really has to be made by the gods, there's no way that something this good was made by man."

"I'm glad you think so," the chef said with a kind smile, "It's good to have someone appreciate my food again, the last one as enthusiastic as you left us a few years back."

Ichiraku was the name of the chef and store owner. A kind person through and through, like everyone's favorite older uncle. When the older man had first seen the two boys sitting on the stools of his little shop he had thought that the blond one might have needed to go to the hospital, but he had moved like someone who wasn't hurt and only looked at him in confusion when he had suggested getting the first aid kit so he had reluctantly let it slide.

All his worries about his health however soon disappeared as the boy tried some of his best ramen for the first time. The boy had shouted at the top of his little lungs that it was fit for Kami and asked for second as soon as his bowl was empty.

Ichiraku allowed another frown to grow as he took a second look at the boy's clothes. Maybe the boy was just muddy, the mess all over him was a dark – almost black – mess so it was hard for a civilian like him to identify what it was.

Since he obviously was physically fine, Ichiraku kept on making more ramen for the two boys. The second one, however, soon lost interest in eating as he watched the blond boy destroy bowl after bowl. By the time the Nara boy had slowly finished his first, and only bowl since he wasn't that hungry, the blond had eaten three.

'I'm not sure my allowance will cover all that,' Asuna thought as he watched on in minor awe.

"Excuse me," an old man's voice asked the chef from the right side of Asuna, "May I have a miso with extra egg?"

"Sure thi- Hokage-sama! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," Ichiraku said, surprised to see the leader of the village sitting at his stall.

Naruto froze as the chef said 'Hokage-sama'. It wasn't really his reaction to the word that caused the freeze, it was his Kaa-sama inside of his seal that had suddenly bristled and growled in anger, that was frightening the boy.

'What is it Kaa-sama?' Naruto thought, his mental voice panicky since the last time his Kaa-sama acted like this was when the villagers started to hurt him.

'That man, the Hokage,' Kyuubi hissed, 'he's an enemy of mine that helped put me inside of you.'

Naruto carefully peeked around his friend. He used extreme caution, slow enough that when he stole a look it took the old man a full second to notice.

"Hello there," Hiruzen said, addressing Naruto directly with a grandfatherly smile.

Naruto jerked back around Asuna, trying to hide behind his friend's body and causing Hiruzen to raise an eyebrow at the 'shy' action. 'HE SAW ME!' Naruto shouted in his head as fear started to overwhelm him.

'BECAUSE HE'S **THE HOKAGE,** OF COURSE HE SAW YOU!' Kyuubi shouted to break through the boy's growing fear with shouted logic, 'HE'S ONE OF THE **BEST SHINOBI IN THIS VILLAGE**. HE'S THE LEADER OF THEM ALL, SO OF COURSE HE WOULD BE ABLE TO CATCH A CHILD LOOKING AT HIM!'

It didn't work. Most adult parents could tell you that shouting at a skittish child wasn't going to work, but Kyuubi wasn't an adult parent, she was a chakra entity who had never raised anything before and it showed. Naruto started to panic faster as she shouted at him.

'WHAT'S HE GOING TO DO KAA-SAMA!? WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO YOU ME? WILL HE TAKE YOU AWAY OR HURT ME!' Naruto in the real world started to hyperventilate as he imagined all the things this 'Hokage' could do to him.

"Are you alright?" the old man asked, concerned as he saw the jinchuuriki's breath pick up.

Naruto's eyes flashed towards the old man, in a second he had cataloged all his features and compared them to those he associated with people who hurt him. He was older like the man who had led fist beating, and he was acting nice at first like him as well. Naruto was sure that it was fake since the other old man had done it to.

In turn Hiruzen saw the boy get ready to run. There was nothing else the boy could be doing, Naruto was tensing, leaning a bit away from him and had one leg off the stool he was sitting on even as the boy's eyes looked him up and down. Inside the old Hokage felt a spike of worry and shock.

'What could have happened to make Naruto act like this around others?' he wondered while cursing his lack of personal involvement, if he had already inserted himself into the boy life then he could have just asked.

'CALM DOWN!' Kyuubi shouted, despite how ironic her own words were before forcing her words into a gentler tone, 'There has to be a reason why he's here. Just don't draw attention to yourself and it should be alright.'

'But he already spoke to me,' Naruto whimpered as he looked at the rapidly worrying old man.

"Are you alright child?" Hiruzen asked again, trying to see if he could find the reason for his apparent fear.

'HE SPOKE TO ME AGAIN!' Naruto shrieked internally.

'THEN ANSWER HIM!' Kyuubi shouted back, equally panicked as she realized that her normal response of 'crush problem until it is paste' wasn't going to work in this situation.

'WHAT DO I SAY?' Naruto worried loudly.

'ANYTHING!' Kyuubi answered.

Hiruzen was about to reach out and touch the boy on the shoulder when the blond suddenly blurted out, "You're old."

Hiruzen froze, Ichiraku froze, Asuna froze, Naruto froze as he suddenly felt like the biggest idiot in the entire village, and Kyuubi face palmed in the sudden silence.

Then the most unexpected sound broke the silence, Hiruzen was laughing. "I guess I am at that," the Hokage said after he collected himself from the unexpected statement.

"Ya," Naruto forged on praying that he could keep the old man laughing, "you look like someone who escaped a nursing home." Naruto followed up this remark by taking a hard look at the white Hokage robes. "Do they write the address in your collar in case their senile patients wander off?" he asked teasingly.

"I'm old, not senile," Hiruzen said giving Naruto a 'hard' look before smiling.

"I guess," Naruto murmured in obvious disbelief before turning to Ichiraku. "Thanks' for the meal, Ichiraku-ji," he said politely to the owner before sliding off his stool. Looking at Asuna he smiled, "I have to go now, thank you for bringing me here Asuna." Before any of the assembled could respond, Naruto was gone.

The other boy nodded and waved at the retreating back of his friend as he pulled out his allowance. 'Getting to know people is expensive,' he mentally grumbled before a hand stopped him.

"Why don't I pay for this," the Hokage suggested to the child with a smile, "I'm going to be getting my own food and don't mind paying for yours as well."

The Nara boy thought it over before shrugging. "Thanks," he said, getting up and hurrying after Naruto.

As both children left Hiruzen let out a sigh. "Is something wrong Hokage-sama?" Ichiraku asked.

"No," Hiruzen quickly denied, "I just suddenly realized I have to do something more important than a late breakfast, sorry." With that, Hiruzen pulled out his wallet and quickly paid for the kid's meals and his uneaten one before standing up and following them from a distance.

-[]-

"Hey Naruto, wait up," Asuna called after his friend as he hurried after the blond.

Naruto started going faster as he mistook the voice behind him. He wasn't running, but he was no longer walking. Asuna sighed and reluctantly started jogging to catch up. As the sound of the foot falls behind him picked up Naruto started to run.

Asuna frowned and broke into a sprint, "Naruto, wait!"

Naruto sped up, trying his best to escape whomever was calling him not realizing it was the closest person he had to a friend as fear blinded his reaction. Hiruzen noticed Naruto picking up speed and took to the rooftops, getting out of the immediate line of sight and a little ahead of the two boys so that he could observe them.

Naruto's face was a blind panic while Asuna was letting a concerned frown show as he tried to catch up with the blond.

Naruto suddenly turned a corner and to anyone on street level, vanished into the crowd. From above, Hiruzen could track the wave of people suddenly jerking out of the way as a small spot of blond hair raced through them. Bellow, Asuna huffed as he uselessly tried to look through the crowds' legs to spot his friend.

Hiruzen felt his frown deepen as the crowd's reaction to the intruder quickly got worse. Voices started getting raised. From above, Hiruzen could see the crowd opening around the child. The villagers were glaring at the boy in their middle saying things that Hiruzen couldn't hear from where he was but obviously distressed the boy.

Then one person suddenly moved to hit Naruto and Hiruzen moved like only the Shinobi no Kami could.

-[]-

Naruto raced through the forest of legs as he tried to escape the old man at the ramen stand. The people at the top of the legs at first let out surprised exclamations as he weaved through them but as soon as they noticed who was bothering them their words took a dark turn.

"Monster." One hissed in fear as Naruto brushed past.

"Demon."

"- A Freak." Another said, pointing him out to those around her.

"Dead meat."

"Bastard."

The voices came from all around Naruto now instead of just from those that the boy had jostled on accident as he tried to run past them. The open spaces between the group of people that he had been running through were quickly vanishing as the crowd seemed to form ranks around him.

The air somehow felt thicker, hotter as Naruto ran. Something seemed to be coming off the villagers around him. Naruto shivered and his's eyes widened as this dark feeling started to loom over him, it felt like it was blocking out the sun and turning the world around him a deep red color.

"Murderer."

"Look at that, he's covered in blood."

 **"Demon."**

"In-human."

Naruto's panic was growing by the second, overwhelming what Kaa-sama was saying about 'killer intent' or 'emotion sensing', nothing she said was truly reaching the boy now. Looking around with wide eyes, Naruto could only see the hate filled glares from adults, the street he had ended up on didn't have any other children to witness their rage and hear their words so the people let their hate and fear show.

The crowd had pulled back from him creating a small island of clear road for him to stand in while they found courage in numbers to curse him.

"Should have been killed already."

"Get away from us."

"Leave the village!"

 **"Monster!"**

 **"Die!"**

Naruto put both hands on his ears, trying to shut out the words and sprinted towards the largest opening he could see in the sea of hateful faces. The boy felt like he was charging through molasses as whatever darkness the people were spewing seemed to suck his strength and hold him in place.

The darkness suddenly throbbed with power and there was a rush of movement as a woman he had gotten within arm's reach of raised her hand to strike and Naruto faltered. Throwing up his arms he clenched, expecting the start of another beating.

However, the pain from the first strike never came. After a moment of suspense, Naruto opened his eyes to see what had happened. The scary feeling had vanished as if it hadn't ever existed, leaving the world surprisingly normal and everyone apart from a traumatized child unaffected.

The reason of this sudden clarity was obvious.

The old man from the ramen stand was there, standing in front of Naruto and facing the woman. The blond Jinchuuriki somehow knew that the man's presence alone was what had caused the hateful aura to vanish. Held in the Hokage's hand was the wrist of the woman who had been about to hit him.

"I'm sure you have a good reason to hit an orphan child," Hiruzen said in a voice that could had frozen the sun. A different kind of killer intent leaked from the man's expression, filing the area with similar darkness, more blue than red then what had been there before. The effects of the blue darkness only touched the people instead of Naruto, silencing the voices as if they had never been.

"I… Ah, I'm ju- ah," the woman stuttered helplessly as she tried to use her brain. Unfortunately, she had left it at home and had to use what little remained just to keep from wetting herself.

"I see that you need a moment to collect yourself," Hiruzen said with false politeness, "I'm sure that Mr. Ibiki would love to hear your reasons, seeing as how I'm going to be busy by the time you get yourself together."

The woman finally did wet herself as the head Torture and Interrogation division was named. To add to her shame, her legs gave out and she collapsed to her soiled knees, trembling far too much to even care about the mess she was sitting in.

The Hokage let go of her hand and made a subtle gesture for a ANBU operative to come in and take her away.

With her gone, Hiruzen turned to look at the blond child. The boy in question flinched again as Hiruzen's cold gaze landed on him and the old man quickly lost the Killer Intent, softening his expression. Going over to the boy, Hiruzen took a knee in front of the child and held out a hand.

"You look like you need a bath," the Hokage said gently, "Would you like me to take you to get one?" Naruto trembled as he stared at the man's hand, he was too frightened to touch it.

'Take his hand,' Kaa-sama's voice suddenly filled in his head.

'Why?' Naruto asked as he tried to examine the man in front of him.

'You can't outrun him, for one,' Kaa-sama reasoned, 'and he doesn't seem to want to hurt you, at least not right now. I can't sense any ill intent coming from him like from the people earlier. Taking his hand would send the message that you accept his protection.'

Her kit still hesitated and Kyuubi added, 'You do need a bath after all. Proper grooming is essential to health living.' She was still wary of the old man, but if he was willing to help her kit then she might be persuaded to tolerate him.

Finally, relaxing only a tiny bit, Naruto hesitantly reached out and put his hand in the much older man's palm. Hiruzen relaxed as the son of his successor symbolically-to him- placed his trust in him. He had seen what looked like an internal battle rage on the child's open expression before he moved and had been enormously relieved to receive the boy's trust.

Standing up he gave the hand a little squeeze and said, "Let's go. I know a great place to have a bath." The completely cowed crowd parted around the two as they started walking through them down the road. Hiruzen glanced out of the corner of his eye to see how Naruto was taking all this.

Naruto was watching the crowd, he was curious as to why they were moving back to give him and the old man space. 'It's a combination of respect and fear,' Kyuubi spoke up as she picked up on her kit's thoughts and through him sensed the villagers emotions.

'Are they afraid of me and respectful of the Hokage?' Naruto asked. He had noticed where the people were looking when it was fear and that it was the old man that appeared to have their respect.

'I think so, kit,' Kyuubi answered resignedly before added, 'I'm sorry.'

* * *

September 15th 56 VE 

12:10 pm

Hiruzen opened the doors to his home. The house he lived in whenever he wasn't at the office was a nicely sized, rather normal looking building that had been capable of housing his entire family before it had been torn apart.

"The bath is this way," Hiruzen said as he started walking down the hall.

Naruto followed behind him, still watching for any sudden movements from the old man. There hadn't been any danger on the walk over, by the time he reached the door to the bathroom Naruto warily felt like he could relax just a bit.

"Do you need help washing?" Hiruzen asked the small child.

Naruto shook his head. No one at the orphanage had helped him wash, just shown him the room with the bathtub and left him there for ten minutes.

The Hokage frowned as his experience with raising kids told him that they sometimes needed help doing things as complex as using a shower to wash at this age, but he let it go for now. "I'll be down the hall if you need me," he said and left Naruto outside the door, he needed to call the seal experts in now that they had found Naruto.

-[]-

As soon as the door closed behind him, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. 'We're safe,' he said to Kaa-sama.

"For now," Kyuubi answered darkly.

'Kaa-sama, why do you have to be so much of a downer?' Naruto teased, trying to force a happy look on his face.

"Stop that right now," Kyuubi ordered the second she saw the obvious deception, "You should never hide how you really feel from me. There might be times when it's necessary to hide it from others, but never hide it from me."

'Hai, Kaa-sama,' Naruto responded as he struggled to lift his stiff shirt over his head. 'Hey, mom?' Naruto asked as he pulled his stiff shorts off.

"Yes Naruto?"

'What was that thing before?' Naruto shuddered as he remembered the darkness coming from the villagers, 'I mean that darkness, it was so black and red with the villagers but blue from the old man. It was scary.'

Kyuubi was silent as she processed that. She had always had the power to feel the hate in others, it was one of the reasons why she hated humans. "I think you're sensing the negative emotions of those around us," Kyuubi said calmly, "It's a power I used to avoid people before the man with red eyes caught me off guard. The red is a form of hate and the blue was a form of cold anger and disappointment."

'I don't want to feel things like that,' Naruto grumbled. It was scary being exposed to that much hate.

"I think you need to get used to it," Kyuubi said sadly. That skill was one of the major reasons why she was so feared. "Being able to see what those around you are feeling is the greatest sensing ability there is, since most shinobi can hide their chakra but no one can truly hide their emotions."

Naruto shivered and put the thought out of his mind before reaching up and turning on the shower to stand head down in the water, letting it fall across his back and loosen the dried clumps of blood and mud in his hair. 'What do I do now mom?' he asked to distract himself.

Kyuubi paused as she replayed every moment Naruto could remember about the old monkey, analyzing it for a reason behind the Hokage's actions. Snapping open her eyes, Kyuubi grinned like the animal she was shaped after.

"Naruto, if you don't want to be hurt again, you need get stronger."

There was no argument from the boy there.

"The Hokage has the resources to help you get stronger, but you need to get him to where he offers you training or is willing to give it to you."

'How?' Naruto asked.

"Here's what you need to do," she started, instructing her intently listening kit.

-[]-

Outside, Hiruzen walked down the hall and into the living room where he sat down to go over everything he had picked up on about the boy.

He had been beaten by adults at least once. Hiruzen had a dreadful feeling that the blood found earlier would be Naruto's, going by the appearance of the boy's clothes.

Also, he was forced to take care of himself.

He knew when someone powerful was approaching. Maybe a natural sensor, hopefully?

Lastly, he lacked ties to the village.

As a father, Hiruzen would completely understand if Naruto wanted nothing to do with Konoha and left it the first chance he got. However, as the Hokage, at least until Minato got back, he needed to keep the boy here. He needed to keep Naruto inside of the village that was hurting him, meaning he needed to forge some bonds with the boy that were stronger than his pain.

"What can I do for him to help him like the village?" Hiruzen murmured as the sound of falling water from the bathroom stopped. As the adult racked his brains for a way to get close to the child, said child poked his head into the living room, wrapped in a towel.

"Excuse me, sir," Naruto asked politely, but with a shy tone that his Kaa-sama told him to use, "Can I have some spare clothes? Mine are a little dirty."

Hiruzen shook himself out of his planning before focusing on the boy. Naruto was small, even for someone his age, a little thin too. The towel wrapped protectively around his shoulders was large enough to completely cover him almost to the ankles.

Because of this he couldn't see if there were any marks on his body, if he could get physical evidence of Naruto's mistreatment then he probably could get one of the clans to try and adopt him despite what the council said on the matter.

"Of course, forgive me for forgetting, old age and all that," Hiruzen said, standing up and going to the child and guiding him towards the hall. "I kept some of my sons' old clothes in their old rooms, there may be something that fits you in there."

"Thank you," Naruto smiled with obvious happiness.

'Is that fake?' Hiruzen wondered as he led the way into Asuma's old room. The smile looked real enough, if it wasn't for the fact that he had witnessed how much hate was being leveled at the boy seconds ago he would have completely believed in its authenticity. Either it was a good fake or Naruto was emotionally stunted.

He couldn't tell which option was 'better'.

-[]-

Arriving at their destination, Hiruzen let Naruto go in first while he took a moment to look through the door. His son had left him a few years ago, officially it was to pursue 'personal interests', but really it was so that he wouldn't have to be around his father. Hiruzen sighed as he couldn't even remember what the fight was over and yet it had pushed his son out of the village.

"Hey, these clothes are kind of big." The surprisingly rough voice of Naruto pulled the old man out of his reminiscing and back into the present. Naruto was looking though Asuma's dresser and was looking at a shirt that his son had worn when he was twenty.

"That's because you're looking through his grown-up clothes," Hiruzen explained to the child, "His younger ones are in the closet."

Naruto blinked before going to rummage through the closet and boxes within. In a short amount of time he had found a mesh shirt and white vest along with some black shinobi pants.

"I remember when my son first got those," Hiruzen smiled in memory, "My son wanted to impress the girl on his genin team and so he went out and bought those clothes only to realize that they were a little small for him. The girl laughed really hard the first time she saw him trying to walk while wearing them."

Naruto smirked as he imagined a boy trying to fit into clothes several sizes too small. Later, this mental image became the basis of many pranks. Smiling, Naruto let his towel drop without a second thought.

Hiruzen subtly glanced at the boy, trying to find proof of his theory that Naruto had been beaten. To his surprise, Naruto's body didn't have any markings on it, no indication of violent trauma.

'Maybe the abuse is emotional,' Hiruzen thought, remembering that the crowds had been saying things, 'but how does the blood fit in? or is it unrelated?'

Unaware of the observing man, Naruto quickly pulled on the clothes and stood to examine himself in a mirror. The mesh shirt was long on him and the vest reached down to mid-thigh, but the pants were nice and warm and only reached a few inches past his ankles. Bending down and rolling them up, Naruto stood proudly before the mirror.

"They're still a little big," Naruto muttered seriously before smiling. "Hey, Jiji," he called attention back to himself, unaware that Hiruzen already was watching him, "Did your son impress the girl?"

Hiruzen smiled in memory. "Nope," he shook his head, "They're still dancing around each other like hor… birds," he finished lamely

"I see…" Naruto trailed off, not quite getting why Hiruzen had changed what he was going to say, but it made his Kaa-sama chuckle and get a strange feeling of longing that he could feel without needing to go into his mind.

"Anyway," Naruto continued remembering the basics of Kaa-sama's plan, "How did he try to get close to her? Did he train to get her attention?" Kaa-sama had suggested he say some rather strange things to get training, but if she said they would work then he might as well try.

"He trained a lot," Hiruzen said with pride. Young Asuma had dragged himself from one training course to another with only small breaks in between, unless it was his day off. On his days off he would hardly move an inch as he sought to get the maximum amount of rest throughout the day.

"Do you think that I can get someone's attention if I train?" Naruto asked.

Hiruzen choked, "Wah? Already thinking about that?"

"About what? I mean," Naruto clarified, "That's how it works right? If you get strong, then people like you, they notice and acknowledge you."

It was so sad that Naruto felt that he had to earn people's acknowledgement. Hiruzen could only feel disappointment in his village for making a child think that. However, on the other hand, if he felt the need to train to prove himself then he as the Hokage could help him meet with people and form bonds with kids his own age that could secure the boy's loyalty to the village.

"That is one way," Hiruzen answered carefully, "but you'll need to learn how to train properly first or you'll just hurt yourself."

Naruto nodded to himself while inside Kyuubi grinned in delight, step one complete. Hiruzen was about to suggest that Naruto might like to go to the academy when the boy gave him a perfect opportunity.

"Then can you teach me!?" Naruto yelled out his question and held a perfect ninety-degree bow like his Kaa-sama had shown him.

Hiruzen blinked as he processed the kid's words. "Train you?" he repeated, "As in teach you to be a shinobi?"

If Naruto already wanted to go then he didn't need to try to convince the boy that the academy would need to be the first step to his goal of becoming strong, and his own goal of create bonds between the people in this village and Naruto. Hopefully the class would be able to do both of those for him.

"Yes," Naruto affirmed.

Hiruzen thought over his next few steps. He could tell the council, and more specifically Danzo, that the jinchuuriki was getting stronger and becoming loyal to the village by enrolling in the academy, as well as keep a closer eye on Naruto through his teacher since he was too busy to teach him personally. Naruto could also make bonds that could sustain him emotionally until his family came back.

All together it was a win for him.

"I can't train you personally," he said carefully. "Before you give me that look," Naruto had already looked up and had puppy dog eyes, "It is because I have an entire village to run, so I just can't be there to teach you properly as someone like you deserves, however I can get you into the academy to start your education." In war time Naruto could have started a year ago, but now a days the academy started training five year-olds.

Seeing the unsure look Hiruzen added, "I can always keep open my door to you if you need to speak with me about things in class, for help and such. What do you say?"

Naruto didn't even need to consult Kaa-sama. "Sure, I can't wait," he cried enthusiastically, pumping his fist in the air. Hiruzen smiled as he saw a new leaf begin to sprout.

Since he was already there, Hiruzen insisted that Naruto spend the night in his house since it got lonely sometimes, living there alone.

Naruto gladly accepted.

* * *

September 15th 56 VE 

7:50 pm

That night, when he was sure that the old man had gone to sleep, Naruto's body sat on his bed while his mind was completely occupied talking to Kaa-sama.

"How can we trust him to train me?" Naruto asked the fox in the cage, "I thought he was the leader of the village, someone who would hurt me."

"He is if he needed to," Kyuubi assured her kit sadly, "but he can also be a source of training, resources, and protection if you approach him right."

"Approach him right?" Naruto asked for clarification.

"As of now, he sees you as a child who wants to become strong," Kyuubi explained with a smile, "Unlike most in this village, he will treat you at least halfway normally if only to keep you, and more specifically me, here. Unless you do something to give him a reason not to trust you, he's the best option you've got to learn how to protect yourself and possibly get some means to support yourself later."

"You mean get a job, right?" Naruto said, seeing through the Kyuubi. He was only five, why did he have to be thinking about a job already? "Why do I have to get a job?" Naruto whined, hating the entire idea.

"Because you need one," Kyuubi answered, "But what that job is going to be is up to you."

"Well that's a relief," Naruto muttered insincerely before getting back to the cool stuff, "So, training?"

Kyuubi nodded, "Training to be a shinobi is one of the easiest ways you can prepare for any career you could choose since it teaches you the most things." Almost every single job available to the people in this village revolved around Shinobi. "Not only that," Kyuubi continued, "but you will have me to help teach you. It will still be hard work, but with my help we can do it."

Naruto perked up. "So, you're going to train me?" he asked hopefully, "You're going to teach me stuff on top of what I learn at the academy?"

Kyuubi nodded again, "Yes kit, I can train you to be the most powerful Shinobi in the entire village." 'He technically is already since he has me in him,' she added in her thoughts, 'What he needs is refinement and control.'

"ALRIGHT!" Naruto shouted exuberantly, "Then I want to be the best Shinobi in the village!"

"Well then," Kyuubi said smirking, "The first thing you need to start learning to control your chakra, and then how to shape it."

* * *

September 15th 56 VE 

9:23 pm

Hiruzen looked in on the boy after he finally went to sleep. The son of his successor was laid out flat on the bed on top of the blanket. Somehow, the boy looked like he had just run a marathon before laying down to get some deep sleep. 'The day must have worn him out,' Hiruzen thought as he gently pulled the covers off the bed to lay him to rest. However, before he tucked Naruto in, he turned around.

"In here," he whispered over his shoulder to the five most senior seal masters. It was the perfect time for the seal masters to check him without Naruto knowing. There had been some argument over who would get to examine the seal, but since they needed to be stealthy only the top five had come with the Hokage.

The three men and two women moved past the Hokage and into the room to the bed. Naruto was dead to the world and laying on his back so it was easy for the adults to pull up his shirt and run a little bit of chakra across his belly to see the seal.

"Oh," one of the female masters gasped when she saw the seal, "This is intricate. Maemi, get a copy of that down, we'll need to take a better look at it later."

"Why don't you copy it yourself," the other woman shot back.

"Quiet," the oldest seal master said, "We'll all make copies and examine the seal by ourselves before coming back together and discussing it. That way we might be able to puzzle out what Hikaru made without disturbing the child."

The others quickly agreed with their senior and started making several detailed copies of the seal matrix. The process took over half an hour and required them to move the boy a bit. By the time they were done, the Hokage was getting worried.

"Are you done?" he asked as all five seal masters filed out of the room, "Is there anything wrong with the seal?"

The seal masters all looked at each other before shaking their heads. "There isn't anything wrong as far as we can tell at a glance, Hokage-sama," the leader said, "but we've made several copies of the seal so that we can examine it more in depth later. We will figure out just what the seal can do."

Hiruzen nodded in relief, "Thank you, that's a load off my mind. With Jiraiya out of the village it helps to know that someone at least partially familiar with seals is confident."

"Indeed. If you have nothing else for us?" the seal master received a negative head shake from the Hokage for his question. "Then we'll leave you for now, good night Hokage-sama."

With that, the seal masters all quietly left the Hokage's house.

Hiruzen sighed as he walked up to the room where Naruto slept and finished tucking the boy in. Naruto hummed a bit in contentment as Hiruzen quietly stood up and gently closed the door behind him. Tomorrow would be the start of his battle with the council.

* * *

 **If the village is a dictatorship then why does Hiruzen get bogged down by the council in so many stories?**

 **Either way, that looks like it's going to happen a bit in mine as well.**

 **REVIEWS!**

 **Guest: I am partially convinced that Naruto in canon is brain damaged since he just keeps on forgiving, so don't expect my Naruto to be a rainbows of forgiveness all the time.**

 **Dragolight: I have a few ideas for OP abilities but they're going to have to be practiced instead of just granted.**

 **bcsclaymore: I'm sorry if I confused you, Kushina knows that Naruto is alive but Minato convinced her that leaving him behind would be OK and that it would protect the village. Stupid blond monkey.**

 **Guest: I know that I have a habit of almost copying events from the comic/show when I write and I'm trying to move away from that by writing about younger Naruto. For the record, I have someone look over my grammar but that doesn't mean we catch all the mistakes, if you want to point any out to me then I will gladly fix them.**


	5. the start of what could have been

**Never going give you up,**

 **Never going to let you down**

 **Never going to run around and desert you!**

 **This is an AU and will contain: Kyuubi Naruto, Fem Naruto, Abuse, and gender changes, and loss next chapter.**

 **Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto**

* * *

-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

 **"JUTSU NO NAME"** is a jutsu.

 **"Foolish monkeys,"** is Bijuu or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp

* * *

September 16th 56 VE (Village Era)

7:23 am

Naruto woke up late the next morning with a throbbing headache. Usually, he would spend the night listening to Kaa-sama tell him stories and interesting facts. This night, however, she had been teaching him internal Chakra exercises, which were the cause of his migraine.

Meditating with Kaa-sama was supposed to leave him feeling rested and alert, but now he wanted to roll back over and go back to sleep.

'Up, kit,' Kaa-sama's normally soft voice encouraged, felt like a grindstone on his skull.

'Let me die in peace,' Naruto groaned dramatically, throwing an arm over his eyes.

 **'UP,"** Kyuubi ordered, her tone now sounding for all the world like the voice of Kami.

'Fine~' Naruto dragged out as he sat up in bed and looked around the unfamiliar bedroom. It took a moment but then he remembered where he was. 'Kaa-sama, what do we do now?' he asked nervously.

'Find breakfast,' Kyuubi answered simply.

'I meant with the Hokage,' Naruto clarified, 'What to do about him?'

'Find, breakfast, you can't think on an empty stomach kit,' Kyuubi repeated, exaggerating her words, 'Then worry about him and the rest of the world. Besides, this is his house so we'll most likely see him at the table or around the building afterwards.'

'Alright,' the boy said, getting up with a wince, 'Learning this Chakra stuff is hard.' Kaa-sama had been teaching him about Chakra all night, explaining what she knew about the theory behind it before moving onto how to mold and control it. After he got that down she had him try and send various amounts to different… Tentu. Tenksu. Tenketsu. Tenketsu points. That's what it was, Tenketsu points throughout his body to learn control.

It hadn't worked like she had described, he had only been able to feel his Chakra and move it a bit instead of direct anything before it corrected its course and returned to flowing in the network he had pulled it from.

She had also told him that that was alright, that most humans, despite years of practice, couldn't control their Chakra well enough to do what she was asking him to do, but it was still upset him to (in his words) disappoint her.

Kaa-sama had reassured him that she could help train him reach the point where he could send a specific amount of Chakra to a single Tenketsu anywhere within his body. She had told him that, 'Perfect control over your Chakra is so hard that not even the old man could do it,' but he might be able to do it if he kept on trying. Wanting to impress her, Naruto swore to have the best Chakra control in the entire village.

If only he had known about the headaches that such determination would bring.

Getting up, Naruto found his way to the kitchen. The kitchen was small for a family house, but since Naruto hadn't been in any other kitchens before he felt a little lost looking at the cupboards and smooth countertops.

"Where is the food?" he mumbled, looking around at the cabinets and refrigerator as if they were portals into an abyss.

'Try the refrigerator,' Kaa-sama said before giving a basic overview of what she thought a healthy human diet would be, 'Eat things that are green and have leaves, fruit is also good, and meat.'

"Alright," Naruto said confidently, pulling open the white door.

* * *

September 16th 56 VE 

8:50 am

Hiruzen wasn't at breakfast, in fact, he wasn't even in the house. The old Hokage was puffing away his anger on his pipe as he looked over the mountain of paperwork. His morning after an early breakfast hadn't gone nearly as well as he had wanted it to.

The first thing he had done after getting in was call a council meeting, only to find that there already was one in progress. Confused and concerned that he hadn't been informed, Hiruzen had dashed off to find out what the meeting was about.

Once there, the Hokage had had to stop the heads of the civilian population from calling for Naruto's head for over ten separate crimes. Apparently, from their perspective, there had been a break out from the Orphanage that let the demon roam the village and cause mass panic. The Fox had, according to the civilian reports, strutted around the terrified villagers, taking what it wanted, and hurting anyone in it's way.

The old man had been flabbergasted for a whole two seconds, a lifetime to a shinobi, as he tried to process how these ridiculous crimes had been laid at the innocent boy's feet before. Stalling the vote he waited until the shinobi heads could arrive. Once everyone was assembled, Hiruzen quickly moved to dismiss the claims.

The vote had been an easy win once the rest of the clan heads more level gaze looked over the charges. Before he had arrived, the only Shinobi clan heads present apart from himself were the Kurama and the Shimura.

With that out of the way, Hiruzen moved on to the next topic, He had asked for a report on the blood sample found at the site he thought Naruto had been attacked at.

The response to his inquiry was for a sweating head of the hospital to announce, "There was a mix up with the samples and it ended up in the hazardous waste disposal. You have my apologies for my colleagues' incompetence."

'How does a building full of competent health professionals have a mix up that destroys evidence of someone being beaten?' Hiruzen asked himself as he stabbed his stamp onto the report he happened to be reading while thinking. That had to be more than just 'incompetence'. The mess had also been cleaned up after the samples had been taken so there wasn't any chance for a second sample.

So now he had nothing to prove that Naruto had been hurt apart from his feelings and circumstantial evidence. On top of that, despite some of his best work, he knew that there were some on the Council that were still convinced of Naruto's guilt, despite how ridiculous the charges had been.

Hiruzen could only shake his head as he questioned the council's competence and integrity. To make matters worse, there had been some on the council that hinted that they thought him dismissing the the crimes as a sign of him favoring the boy.

The most disgruntled council members even started to suggest that he might have helped him commit his 'crimes', or at least given him shelter from justice until the Nara clan head broke down how stupid that would be.

The blatant hate focused on the boy had shaken the old man, aging him decades, sitting there listening as they had all but demanded him to turn the boy over to be punished. It took hours for the Hokage to alleviate their demands. In the end, he would have to have Naruto out of his house in a day or two. He had to find suitable living arrangements for him.

After the meeting, he had come up to his office and sat down, needing a moment to think. Half an hour later, he called for the head of the academy to meet with him.

-{}-

Hiruzen was sorting paperwork as he waited for the headmaster to arrive. Thankfully a knocking from the door at the front of the Hokage's office saved the Sandaime from the paper monster.

"Enter."

The man who entered was about thirty years old and had brown hair with black eyes and a narrow face. He wore a Chunin flak jacket with a black long sleeved shirt and three quarters pants, like many other Shinobi of Konoha.

"What can I do for you, Hokage-sama?" the young man in charge of overseeing the future shinobi asked, coming to a stop a respectful distance from the Hokage's desk.

"I am hoping that you'll be willing to take on a new student despite some rather unusual circumstances surrounding him," Hiruzen started.

"You want to put the Kyuubi boy into the academy already?" the academy head correctly guessed what this was all about.

"He's not 'the Kyuubi boy' Shika," Hiruzen said with a censorious frown.

"It doesn't really matter if he is or isn't," Shika Kuro said, waving his hand dismissively, "The point is that kids usually start at the academy around six years old, but he is only five. Do you think that he could even keep up with the others?"

"I know that he would try his best," Hiruzen stated, "He has a massive amount of determination." 'He wants to prove himself,' Hiruzen added to himself, 'and I need to give him the opportunity to at least try.'

"I've never heard of someone passing the academies standards on 'determination' alone at age five," Shika said easily, "Usually they need a spark of genius to do that." Thoughts of Itachi Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake popped into the two men's heads at the same time.

"How about this," Hiruzen said thoughtfully, "You take him into the academy, let him join with the next year students. In four years' time, he will be allowed to try and graduate with that class, if he can't then he'll get to try again with the next year class with his own year group being the limit for attempts."

Shika frowned. "That would give him three attempts at graduating. Why do you want him to graduate so badly Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen went over the list in his head. 'Because he's determined to, because he will be strong if only because of his pedigree, because he needs a firm base in understanding Chakra if he's ever going to control the Kyuubi.' Hiruzen went with the one that he was sure would best please the man in front of him.

"He needs to understand Chakra," Hiruzen stated, "Starting early would give him ample time to go over the basics of Chakra so he can use the Kyuubi, even if he doesn't pass on his first try, that only means that he'll get to hear the lectures more than once and build a deeper understanding for next time."

Shika sighed. He didn't want that boy anywhere near him or his academy, but if he was supposed to have any form of control over the fox he would need to learn. Still, he didn't want the boy learning this control anywhere near his students.

He wasn't an idiot, he knew that the boy wasn't the Kyuubi reborn. What most people seemed to forget was that Jinchuuriki had a history of being unstable. There were horror stories about Hachibi jinchuuriki dying in an almost explosive manner and releasing the beast wherever they happened to be standing, and the Kyuubi was stronger than the Hachibi. This more than justified his fear in his opinion. If the same happened to Naruto then he wanted his students to be on the other side of the village from him at the very least.

'Maybe I can put him in a class all by himself,' the head thought, 'I could call it one on one training.' That still would not be far enough away but it would put him at least a little at ease.

"How will he pay for the classes?" Shika asked, "I mean, he is an orphan so we can't ask for tuition from his family."

"I will pay for it," Hiruzen volunteered with a smile.

Some part of Shika grumbled at not being able to over price the tuition from Naruto. "I can accept that. When do you want him to start, with this years' students or the next?"

"I would like him to get into classes as soon as possible," Hiruzen responded. The school year had already started, but it had only been going for a week. "Are there any openings? Preferably in larger classes so that he can make friends."

Well that blew Shika's idea of his own class out of the water. "I think there's an opening in

Hikaru's class," Shika mused. This class would work to protect the student body. Gakuho Asano had been a teacher for several years and was adept at isolating bad eggs. He could keep the boy busy and the rest of the students safe.

A bonus was that he would be receiving an assistant teacher this year so he would have time to focus on the normal student body while fostering Naruto off on his assistant, Iruka.

Shika hummed as he thought more in depth about the new assistant.

Since Iruka had lost both of his parents to the Kyuubi he had been depressed and a loud mouth prankster, but after a heartfelt word with the Hokage himself the boy had become studious and would often proudly state his goal of becoming a teacher. The young man had only become a Chunin three months ago, yet he had been the first to put his name in for a teaching position.

The question Shika needed to ask Iruka now was if he could put his feelings for the fox aside to teach Naruto. If he couldn't then the young Chunin would only exacerbate the situation and possibly cause the situation he was trying to avoid.

"I think I have a class he might fit into," Shika informed the Hokage, "but I would ask that you have a word with the assistant teacher, he's new and I haven't had the time to get to know him."

"That would be fine," Hiruzen nodded, a word with an assistant teacher was an easy thing to give in exchange for Naruto's chance.

"I'll have him visit you in an hour," Shika saluted and left to get the paperwork for Naruto's admission ready.

* * *

September 16th 56 VE 

1:06 pm

Naruto held onto the Hokage's hand as the old man led him towards the Academy building. On the way, they passed a multitude of side streets that Kaa-sama had him try and get a feel for the most prevalent emotion in it as they passed. It was an interesting experience for Naruto as he was exposed to the difference a single row of houses could bring on the emotions he felt.

For example there was one street that they passed that was blanketed in red and pink feelings. It seemed to be centered around a building that had a lot of grinning men and women going in and out of.

The entire street confused Naruto, he couldn't figure out why they all wanted to go in since it obviously wasn't a market yet there were even more adults on that street than any other the two had passed.

Shaking his head, Naruto groaned as he tried to figure out how Kaa-sama could possibly call this was training. After he had eaten that morning, his Kaa-sama had him told run around the building a couple of times before ten pushups and another run around. That had been training, but how was this guessing at colors to emotions training supposed to help him?

The old man had come home for lunch and told him that he would starting at the ninja academy the next day. Lunch had passed with some awkward small talk with the Hokage asking what he had done though the day and Naruto -Kaa-sama- wanting to know what it was like being the Hokage.

Hiruzen was pleased to hear his interest in Shinobi leadership.

Now the old man was taking him to see where the academy was and, coincidently, where his office was located. "Here we are," Hiruzen said to the boy, pointing with his free hand towards a large building.

They were standing in an open area facing a round white building that had an orange roof and red wood siding. It rose several stories, with each getting slightly smaller to form visible layers. This gave the building the feeling that one was looking at a burning smoke stack or layered cake, at least that's what Naruto thought as he licked his lips.

Coincidently, the kanji for fire was painted largely on the tallest tower of the building, helping with the illusion of fire. The leaf village symbol was above the academy entrance along with the Kanji for Shinobi.

The door was right up against a dividing wall, giving Naruto the feeling that the academy had been added to the existing building. Trees and bushes grew along the building's side and there was a swing hanging from an outstretched branch.

All in all, it looked a bit like a playground area that someone had slapped next to an office complex, which it technically was. Not to get him wrong, it was very neat and orderly, well put together, but it was also obviously built to be a military school and not a civilian one.

"My office is on the other side of the building," Hiruzen said, pointing to the right side of the building with the tower. "I deal with the day to day dealings that this village needs to run smoothly."

Naruto took in the building with wide eyes, while a smile reminiscent of his Kaa-sama appeared in his mind. 'That means you'll have an excuse to get into the same building as the nerve center of the village,' Kaa-sama commented unnecessarily.

'What good will that do us?' Naruto asked, his young mind trying to find a way to use that fact.

'Nothing right now,' Kaa-sama said thoughtfully, 'but this will give us time to stake the building out in case we need to change something, steal, or even destroy the records. Think of the possibilities.'

Naruto nodded, taking his Kaa-sama's words to heart.

"Naruto, there's something I need to discuss with you," Hiruzen started after a moment of silence to allow the boy to take in his future school.

Naruto looked up at the Hokage, an expression of confusion and bright anticipation that was only partially faked on his face. To his eye, a blue and white light seemed to encompass the Hokage's body.

"I'm happy to say that I've found you a house to live in," Hiruzen said, completely lying about being anywhere near happy with the decision.

He winced as Naruto's face fell. "Alright," the blond boy answered, appearing to be upset. "I guess it was too much to ask you to house me forever. Can we go to this new house now? I would like to know how to get from here to there."

Hiruzen sighed internally, partially out of relief that Naruto had taken the news so well but mostly at how irritated he was at the council from preventing him from taking the boy in. "This way," Hiruzen said, gently pulling on Naruto's hand to guide him towards the building he had found.

'Did you see that Kaa-sama?' Naruto asked the fox in his mind, 'The glow was white and only seemed to be around his body instead of filling the area.'

'Yes, I did,' Kyuubi answered as she pondered the color, 'I've never seen white as a color around a person before.'

'Is it normal for the color to only be around his body?' Naruto asked, giving a sideways look to the Hokage beside him. Hiruzen was still covered in the blue and white aura. 'Back with the other villagers the colors were all over the place, it was filling the area.'

Kyuubi paused before shaking her head and revealing some of her more private knowledge.

'Yes,' she said, 'most people give off an aura to our eyes. When they are projecting their emotions into things like killer intent or when a mob appears to lose all sense of control, it's their emotions filling the area and causing that predominant emotion to cloud their judgment.'

Naruto blinked and paused in his step as he learned that. 'I can see what an individual is feeling?' he asked.

Kyuubi smirked as Naruto started to get it. 'Yes, and these feelings not only tell us where they are hiding but can tell us if they're telling the truth. I used it to tell if they're feeling guilt, fear, or anger,' she informed him. 'No one could lie to me.'

'THAT'S SO COOL!' Naruto shouted internally as his thoughts instantly started working on how he could use this ability.

'And that's why you need to practice figuring out what color you're sensing and what that color means they're feeling,' Kyuubi lectured, giving the reason for her training.

* * *

The building that Hiruzen had found for Naruto was a little over a mile from the academy and was a nice-looking structure. The building had obviously been well taken care of, as white paint covered most of the sides and a fence held back the road from a narrow courtyard like space around it.

There were several small families living in the apartments on all levels. The sound of kids could just barely be heard before a trio of them raced past the opening in the fence leading up to the front door.

The street around the building was well maintained and flowers were poking up around the edges of the path. It seemed like someone had a flower garden on the other side of the fence that was starting to grow into the dirt road.

"This looks nice," Naruto said happily. It looked a lot like one of those picturesque homes from the stories he had read in the Orphanage.

"I'm glad you agree," Hiruzen responded, hiding his feeling of shame at not being able to keep the boy safe by his side.

Glancing around, Naruto noticed the colors. "Why don't I go up and look around," He suggested, wanting to get away from the oppressive feelings emanating from some of the adults on the street. Hiruzen nodded and was soon leading the boy up to the top floor.

The walk up was fun. As they arrived on each new level, there would be a burst of emotion if someone happened to see them. It was kind of fun trying to guess what emotion it was, but that soon became a little sad in Naruto's opinion since most emotions were some variant of anger and fear.

Finally, Hiruzen arrived at the top level and made his way down to about the middle door in the row. Naruto didn't like it; up close, the amount of emotions he could feel pressing down on him had him more than a little worried. All the hate from the floors below made him feel like he was standing on top of a volcano and was waiting for a hammer to drop.

Hiruzen noticed the nervous look on his young companion's face, but put it down to being alone for the first time. No child should be living alone if it could be avoided in his opinion. Unfortunately for Naruto, he would have to be alone for now since he couldn't find anyone to publicly babysit him who wouldn't stab him in the back or was too obviously a connection to Minato.

Hiruzen opened the door and Naruto breezed past him to get a good look at the apartment.

The first room was the kitchen, the refrigerator was to the left, a table and window in front, and another door on the right leading into the rest of the apartment. Naruto looked around the room before running through the door to explore the entirety of his new home.

Through the door was a short hall with two other doors, one leading into a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink. The other door led into the bedroom and living room. There was another window on the wall to the left and a twin sized bed. An empty cabinet stood just to the right of the door.

A small balcony let Naruto stand out in the breeze and provided a nice view of the street around him. 'Useful for a look out,' the thought crossed both Kyuubi's mind and Naruto's own as they saw it.

Kyuubi smiled with pride as she heard the echo of her own thought. Her kit was getting smarter.

Hiruzen came through the hall following the little blond bundle. "It's not much," the old man said, getting the boy's attention, "but I hope it'll be enough for you until you're grown up."

Naruto gave a show of looking around the room before nodding. "It's nice," Naruto said putting on a huge grin.

A thought then crossed the blond's mind, a memory from the playground, and he enthusiastically stated, "It's all mine? No one else can come in here without my permission? My own little kingdom?"

Hiruzen chuckled, "'My own little kingdom?'" he repeated, "Where did you hear such a funny little phrase?" The no one can come in bit was a tiny bit worrying but Hiruzen put it down to fear over what happened in the street yesterday.

"I heard someone say, 'a man's home is his castle.' That makes this my kingdom, right? Since it's my castle," Naruto explained loudly, trying to cover his real reason for wanting a place he can call his own.

"I guess so," Hiruzen said in a light tone before letting out a little chuckle at the image of an over exuberant Naruto on top of a castle.

Naruto grinned, even if it was just a verbal agreement between him and the Hokage, he had just gotten an excuse to defend his apartment any way he wanted to. A frown then grew across his face. "What about groceries?" he asked, showing a lot of maturity for his age.

"I have set up a stipend for you until you get a job of your own," Hiruzen assured him, deciding that being honest with him couldn't hurt.

"Does that mean that I'll have to get a job soon?" Naruto asked, wide eyed.

"Everyone has to get a job at some point," the Hokage said before deciding that a little prodding in the right direction wouldn't go amiss, "Some of the most important jobs however, are only available to Shinobi of high rank, ones who get good grades in the academy."

"So, all I need to do is get good grades in the academy and I'll get high paying jobs to fund my kingdom," Naruto said apparently thinking out loud in an childish tone. In actuality he was thinking about how to use the stipend. 'I need some kind of defense for the front door,' he decided, 'I'll have to see how much is in the stipend before looking at protection.'

He simply didn't feel safe in this building. The others living here had all been giving off a dark red or black emotion when they had seen him.

He needed to make it safe.

Hiruzen nodded to himself as he watched Naruto. Getting the basic furniture was easy but he would have to come back with groceries and clothes. "Naruto, I have to return to my office," Hiruzen informed the child.

Naruto looked up. "You'll visit me?" he asked looking happy and excited, but internally worried.

"Not that often," Hiruzen said gently, "This is your kingdom, like you said so it wouldn't be right if another king constantly visited, but you will need some more clothes and food of your own. I'll be getting you some to start off with if that's alright with you."

"I'm fine, as long as the clothes are orange and there is some ramen," Naruto said easily with a grin. He was relieved that the old man was busy, that gave him plenty of unsupervised time. He wasn't aware of the guards Hiruzen was planning on posting around the building, maybe one could become a neighbour.

Hiruzen instead just smiled at the enthusiastic way Naruto said the name of every Uzumaki's addiction.

As soon as the Hokage left, Naruto closed the door and started looking in depth around the apartment. 'What you need to look for are symbols drawn in ink,' Kaa-sama instructed him, 'Fuin jutsu looks like kanji written on little tags or in places that aren't easily visible.'

"Alright," Naruto said, tearing through the bedroom first. Under the bed, shifting the cabinet, running outside he examined the outside wall before falling on his belly he glared at the ground. "Nothing," he proclaimed before moving into the hall and going into the bathroom to check.

-{}-

Outside the building, Hokage looked over at the roof tops. "I would like the ANBU team I had assigned to the Orphanage to meet me in my office as soon as I get there," he said looking at a shadow up there.

The shadow of his guard vanished. Hiruzen sighed, at least one thing had gone alright today.

-{}-

Naruto looked around his new house, this time imagining what he wanted to change about it. The front door was relatively easy to block off from the bedroom or living space since the hall between was a choke point. There were no windows large enough for anyone to fit through apart from the balcony, so that made the balcony the least defendable entrance.

'Any ideas how to fix that?' Naruto asked his mother.

'The best way I know to protect an arch way is to put a door in it,' Kyuubi answered, 'or to put a trap in it.'

Naruto grinned, 'What if I cut a hole in the floor and disguise it with a Genjutsu?'

'That could work,' Kyuubi said, imagining a panicking Chunin as they fell through. 'It won't be enough,' she then said as she also imagined the victim catching themselves on the edge of the hole or on the wall beneath, or not even being phased by the Genjutsu because their Sharingan saw through it.

No she's not paranoid nor does she have an axe to grind with the Uchiha clan.

'So, we need to think of some other ideas as well,' Naruto thought before going back into the room. 'What next?'

'A training schedule,' Kyuubi said. 'Until you get into classes, you basically have nothing better to do than train and practice. Time to put some of the things I was telling you about last night to use.'

Naruto groaned. Last night Kaa-sama had told him about internal exercises where he controlled a specific amount of Chakra to go to a specific tenketsu point. Supposedly this would help him do a bunch of cool things like stand on walls and walk on water. All he had managed to do was send a boat load of Chakra down his legs and cramp his muscles.

Kyuubi had encouraged him before suggesting that he get some physical item to practice with.

She had then suggested things like leaves and paper to try physically doing things with.

'Can't we do something else?' he asked politely. He didn't whine because whining was for babies.

'This is the second most important thing you could be doing,' Kyuubi said, baiting her words.

'Well, then what is the first?' Naruto asked as expected. He walked around the room as he tried to figure out what could be more important than Chakra control exercises since Kaa-sama had spent so much time talking about them last night.

'If you truly don't want to practice Chakra control,' Kyuubi answered, 'then I guess we'll just have to practice Fuinjutsu instead.'

Naruto stopped moving next to the cabinet which was almost as tall as he was. 'That doesn't sound too hard,' he said, 'can we do that?' From what Kaa-sama had told him, Fuinjutsu was mostly about using a brush to draw seals and then add Chakra to them to activate them. It had to be less strenuous than trying to walk up walls in any case.

'Maybe, but to do that we would need to gather supplies with money that we just don't have,' Kyuubi sighed. 'We need paper, ink, and brushes at the very least, and find seal diagrams to copy now that I think about it. The only seal I know is the one on this cage and it's too difficult to start on.'

Naruto frowned as he tried to think of ways around these issues. 'Can we make the paper, ink, and brushes?' he tried. 'I have hair on my head, all we need is a stick for the brush and maybe I can use a cloth as paper that we can wash over and over.'

Kyuubi was surprised. He had come up with some functional ideas, but there were a few flaws. 'Those ideas are good,' she started, causing her kit to beam in pride, 'but that still leaves the ink out and we would need to get books to start learn the basic characters which are in the library. We can't get access to them. Besides, the Hokage would probably be willing to lend us all three supplies if we ask.'

Naruto thought about what Kaa-sama said, his face a frowning mask while his thoughts race like a flock of birds through his mind. Kyuubi watched with interest as all these thoughts passed by her too fast for her to make sense of.

The only thing she could tell was that there seemed to be going back and forth from his main thoughts to a box where he kept his more outrageous and 'interesting' thoughts.

'I don't want the Hokage knowing that I'm practicing Fuinjutsu. I want him and everyone else in this village to be as uninformed as possible about me, so no asking him for help. What if we steal the books?' Naruto stated his reasons while giving a firm nod as he apparently settled on an idea to follow.

Kyuubi slapped her hands across her eyes. It was so much risk for an uncertain amount of gain, and yet it just might work for their purposes. 'If you're going to steal the books, why not steal the rest of the supplies while we're at it? What if we get caught?' she asked.

'We won't,' Naruto assured her nervously. It shouldn't be that hard to get the books from the library. On top of that, the village was a ninja village, so there should be plenty of other training manuals or information sources he could get his hands on that could help him.

'Let's wait until it gets dark out. Since we're doing this, we might as well steal a few other books as well,' Kyuubi suggested, glancing at the window that Naruto could see. 'It's much harder to see at night, but with your nose it shouldn't be too hard.' Naruto's nose was as good as an Inuzuka if not one of their hounds after the healing.

Nodding, Naruto went about looking for something to eat and to prepare.

* * *

September 16th 56 VE 

4:20 pm

In his office, Hiruzen looked across the desk in front of him. Four individuals knelt on the floor in front of his desk awaiting orders. "What happened at the orphanage can not happen again," the old Hokage started, knowing that the group in front of him had most likely taken the disappearance of Naruto as a personal slight.

True to his thoughts, there was a barely noticeable flinch as they were reminded. "What I need is for Naruto to be safe," Hiruzen ordered. "Some people inside the village have already hurt him once and I shudder to think what could happen if he develops a hatred for the people."

Memories of the fox tearing through the village fill the minds of the ANBU while an image of Naruto being executed or exiled 'for the safety of the village' repulsed Hiruzen. It is clear to the Hokage that there were members of his village that would do just that if he was not cautious.

"Your orders are to set up surveillance of the apartment building and specifically the room I have placed Naruto in." The ANBU all nodded in acceptance. "At the same time, we need to provide a more public show of protection. To this end, I will have Masaru help provide some Jonin or Chunin to add to the surveillance."

The ANBU were less than happy with the decision. "Sir, why are you bringing in the head of the Jonin into this? Isn't our group enough to watch over the Jinchuuriki?" the leader asked.

The reason was simple; It was a nice balance in Hiruzen's mind. The Jonin were more public and would either slip up and be spotted by the adults or would talk about their job guarding Naruto, but children and most teenagers wouldn't notice them hence allowing Naruto to form bonds with those his age without the bodyguards being noticeable.

"I want the Jonin and Chunin to handle it because they will be noticed by the adult villagers. If they are spotted then the people will think twice before hurting him," Hiruzen explained. Shinobi were trained to fear not seeing things like Genjutsu, but most civilians were only wary of obvious threats.

This reasoning might have worked if it was only civilians hating Naruto. The issue Hiruzen wasn't considering was that the Shinobi who hated him could get around the guard and the civilians who hated Naruto could refuse to even acknowledge him.

"A guard at the door lets people know not to enter in buildings," Hiruzen reasoned. "I want you to set up the surveillance because you will do it best, but the Jonin and Chunin to man it because I think it was the fact that they couldn't see the ANBU that allowed them to think that they could harm him."

"I understand," the team leader said. She still didn't like how her team had let someone take the boy out from under their noses.

Hiruzen was upset over the need to be more open with Naruto's bodyguard, but saw no good alternative if he wanted to keep him safe from the villagers.

"Dismissed."

* * *

September 16th 56 VE 

6:56 pm

Naruto peeked over the top of the window seal. Inside, the library was quiet since most people had left for the day. Only two librarians were inside and from what he had seen peeking through other windows, they were in another other area of the building. Now would be his best chance at getting into the Genin section of the training manuals.

'Ready?' Kaa-sama asked.

'Think so,' Naruto thought back. Lifting the window, the darkly clothed boy slipped through and started looking for the right section. 'Training exercises, Taijutsu, Fuinjutsu manual, and basic techniques,' Naruto mentally recounted the list the two of them had made while preparing.

The area he had found himself in was full of books of a more public variety. Children stories, light novels, and some slightly thicker books filled the shelves around Naruto and guided him towards the main hall.

'So, are there any signs pointing us in the direction of the area we're looking for?' Kaa-sama asked, trying to see missed details in Naruto's sight.

'Not that I see, wait, found a map,' Naruto moved up towards a small billboard with a map on it. The library was large, with over three stories and four wings. As such, there were small billboards depicting maps of where the basic divisions were along with where they were located.

'Genin resources are on the floor above,' Naruto thought, looking at the map, 'but that might not have any Fuinjutsu books in it.'

'Let's go anyways, everything else we're looking for should be there,' Kaa-sama said cautiously.

The stairs were over to the left of the billboard, near the front reception area where one of the remaining librarians was stationed. Sneaking past him or her would be Naruto's first stealth mission the two of them nervously realized.

The front entrance had a large circular desk facing the door and provided easy lines of sight down each hall and up the stairs. There was one man sitting at the desk, fortunately looking at something on the desk in front of him, but that could change with a single sound. The aura around the librarian was kind of gray, as if someone had forgotten to color it in or just couldn't be bothered to.

Naruto was coming from the hall to man's right on the first level, he needed to get across twenty feet of open area before sneaking up the stairs and out of sight.

Done peaking around the shelf, Naruto started forwards. 'Shift your weight to the front of your feet,' Kaa-sama encouraged, 'don't move in any kind of jerky fashion.'

Naruto nodded before smoothly sneaking up to the desk. Pausing at the side of the desk, Naruto waited to familiarize himself with the noises the librarian made, tried to figure out where he was standing and which direction he was facing. Determining that he was looking in another direction, Naruto crouched low and started moving around the back his cover.

"All done around back." Naruto froze as the voice of the other librarian came from around the other side of the desk. "I'm going home now."

"See you tomorrow," the voice of the man at the desk answered before the sound of a door opening and closing filled the room. Naruto waited a moment, listening to the noise the librarian made while working resume before checking for any changes.

Reassured that there weren't any, Naruto darted up the stairs as quietly as he could. Slipping around a bookshelf at the top the boy collapsed against the wood before sneaking a look back the way he came. The adult hadn't seen anything.

'Let's use a window to get out,' Kaa-sama suggested, 'I don't like how close that was.'

'Agreed,' Naruto replied still unnerved by how close that was.

Their search was quick despite Naruto not knowing the dui decimal system. The library was set up for easy use, with the shelves organized and labeled by what they contained. In no time at all Naruto had picked up one piece on chakra control techniques, one on the academy style Taijutsu, and one a little more advanced than the others on the theory of chakra natures.

Like they had assumed, the section was missing one on Fuinjutsu. 'That kind of book must be in a more secure area,' Kaa-sama commented.'It's a very delicate branch of the Shinobi arts after all.'

'Do you think it would be in the Jonin area?' Naruto asked.

'Most likely place for it to be if anywhere, but Fuinjutsu was mostly an apprenticeship skill taught master to student anyway. There might be some beginner books in the Jonin section,' Kaa-sama said. 'Do you want to risk looking? We have enough to keep busy for a while.'

Naruto paused in private thought, weighing in his mind if it was worth it to look. 'We don't need to find those books just yet,' Kaa-sama hurriedly followed up, she could get them later and the near miss at the desk had frightened her.

Naruto wasn't ready for sneaking into the most likely better protected Jonin section yet. She didn't trust anyone in this stinking village not to hurt him if they found her kit alone, let alone in a section he shouldn't be in.

'Alright,' Naruto reluctantly agreed to play it safe. Picking up the books, the Jinchuuriki went over towards the window. His exit was one story off the ground but facing an alley way. Opening the window, Naruto slipped over and hung from it.

Letting go, Naruto absorbed the drop with a crouch that turned into a roll.

'Let's get going,' Kaa-sama said as Naruto stood and dusted himself off.

As he started off, Naruto was unaware of the witness at the other end of the alley.

* * *

On the way back to his house, Naruto finally allowed his excitement to come out. 'What do you think we should start on first?' he questioned his mother before starting in on his own thoughts, 'I would like to start with the chakra natures book. I really like some of the cool jutsu in here. Moving through the ground, walking on water, creating DRAGONS out of fire! So cool!'

'One of those is a chakra control exercise you were complaining about instead of a jutsu,' Kaa-sama commented but chuckled at his enthusiasm.

Naruto rolled his eyes but didn't let his enthusiasm fade. 'Then, I guess I could, give learning control a try.' he ignored Kaa-samas victorious smirk, he could feel it from where he stood. 'Then I'll learn that one as well, but we're most certainly going to read all of the Jutsu scroll first.'

'We'll decide when we get back,' Kaa-sama giggled.

Rounding the street corner, Naruto automatically started following Kaa-sama's training and tried to identify the emotions coming from the people. There were several green people on the street, Naruto had yet to identify what that color was.

As it always did, the main color of the street slowly turned to red as people became aware of who was standing on the same street as themselves. Naruto just plastered a large smile on his face and kept on walking.

"Look at-"

"I know. Where did it come from?"

The voices were coming back. As Naruto paced down the street, Doors closed, and murmurs started up around him. They were cautious, having learned their lesson from what happened last time someone had been too open about their hate, but he could still feel their loathing without needing his empathic senses.

The glares and frowns, as if they had been forced into a room with a pile of shit or a murderer were obvious enough.

At the end of the road, Naruto turned and looked down the street he had just gone down and came to a decision. He hated the color red. Giving the people in the street one last grin to show that they hadn't scared him, Naruto turned back in the direction he had been going and left with his loot.

'Grab some leaves on the way home,' Kaa-sama reminded the unhappy blond before he got too far.

* * *

September 16th 56 VE 

7:06 pm

"It came back."

The old man's words caused a shocked stillness to fall on the small assembly. The mob led by the old man yesterday had been dispersed by the rain after they had beaten the fox, returned to their homes and lives, and now had been dragged back to their meeting place.

"That shouldn't be possible," one of the others stated, "We crushed, stabbed, and mutilated it's vessel for over half an hour then left it in the elements with barely any protection. We had some of the coldest rain on record that night. Surely that would be enough to end the fox."

"It survived the Fourth Hokage's assault," someone else disagreed. "If it could survive that then what chance do we, simple civilians and a few Shinobi, have?"

That caused some angry disagreement between the assembled people as shouts and depressive cries of defeat filled that air as everyone tried to express their grief and frustrations.

"That can't be!"

"Of course we don't measure up to him."

"Why not? Yondaime-Sama made it weak by sealing it in a mortal vessel. We can finish it off!"

"WE SHOULD GIVE UP IF WE CAN'T HURT IT!"

 **"SHUT UP AND BE QUIET!"**

A loud authoritative voice overwhelmed the complaining adults. The source of this voice was from a relative newcomer to these kind of events. Young and strong, the man speaking just so happened to be the Jonin commander in charge of the assignments given to the various Jonin of the village.

When relative quiet had returned and most of the glares had calmed down, the Jonin introduced his plan.

"I just so happen to have received some orders from the third lord today," he stated. "He wants a rotating guard on the demon's new lair." A frown graced the man's face as he said, "He thinks that the Jonin are sloppy enough to let slip what they're protecting to the rest of the villagers yet good enough to prevent any real attack upon it. That the Jonin will dissuade us from performing justice on the demon."

"However, this gives us an opportunity. I can get around the new guard with my position, and we already have what we need to completely destroy the fox," he continued, his enthusiasm influencing those around him, "The fourth Hokage has now given us the time we need to trap and end the fox for good, a seal."

That announcement caused some concerned mutterings from the group. Seals were tricky business for even masters of the art, let alone people like them. The Yondaime Hokage had made the one containing the fox and they were nervous about altering it for fear of releasing the fox.

The actual sealing details had been suppressed for safety reasons so it wasn't a well-known fact that the Yondaime was only there during the sealing instead of the officiator of it. The commander continued presenting his plan despite knowing that fact.

"Seals aren't meant to have other, contradicting or even uneven, seals added to them. The basis of the seal used to trap the fox must be like a storage seal," he said, shifting in his seat and holding his hands out in front of him to animate his thoughts.

"The seal the fourth Hokage made contains the fox in the form of a boy, that's a lot of chakra in one place." Clenching both hands together, Masaru mimicked his reasoning, "This works in theory, so long as there are no issues with the seal. That must be firm, like the walls of a cell. The thing about a cell is that if it's not maintained then the walls will come down eventually."

The man's hands started flexing his fingers, expanding them outwards as he demonstrated this malformed concept. "It might take years, but I think that these seal walls will fall." That caused some worried mutterings.

"What is your point?" one of the mob leaders asked. "Are you just going to tell us how doomed we are? Because we are well aware of that."

"I am saying that we only have a short amount of time," Masaru stated, "but I'm also saying that the fox is at its most vulnerable right now. We have tried destroying its body, but the fox just healed itself and apparently got back up a day or so at most later as if nothing had happened, so now we attack something else, the mind."

Confusion was evident on all of the gathered faces. "What do you mean by that?" asked one.

"All of the attempts to seal a bijuu before were trying to capture all of it and turn its power to their own uses. Now that we have the fox contained, half of the goal, we can alter it through seals," the Jonin postulated. "The end goal with jinchuuriki is to give a human the power of a biju-"

"We don't have a jinchuriki, we have a bijuu in human form!" someone shouted angrily.

"Whatever we have," Masaru said, "the seal on it is the most advanced in all of the elemental nations. Through that, we could alter or possibly even kill the fox's mind, leaving us with all the power the bijuu had in what's left of the body."

Mutters once again filled the room. Gaining the power of a bijuu was rather tempting. The risks though were very high. "Do such seals exist?" the old man leader asked eagerly. 'There must be,' he thought, too many people wanted power for something like that not to. The fox had also done something to his son's mind to trap him within maybe it was a seal like Masaru was suggesting.

"There are several techniques, almost all are exclusively used by the Yamanaka clan, that can affect the mind. There were rumors about one that works by way of a seal that we could alter to work with the monster's seal," Masaru explained while a victorious smile spread across his face.

"It is called the **Shinten Kugutsu Juin no Jutsu** , (Mind Puppet Switch Cursed Seal). A technique that also uses a doll and seal to take a mind out of someone's body and replace it with the castors."

The mob was shocked by the solution presented to them. The rest, however, were excited by how easy Masaru made it sound. "We just need to alter the technique a bit and we could use it to destroy the fox's brain, or bend it to our whim," Masaru wrapped up his presentation and opened up for questions.

"Can you get a hold of this Jutsu?" the old man asked, grinning.

"Yes, rather easily," Masaru answered, smiling back. He had a friend in the Yamanaka clan who could help with that, "But I would need to have the fox to study the Yondaime's seal at the same time as the jutsu to make certain I can alter both to work in tandem."

"So we would need to secure the fox," a leader of the mob who had been silent until now stated. "At the same time, Masaru will secure the Jutsu. Does anyone have a place that we could stash the fox until we're ready?"

Planning from there went deep into the night.

* * *

September 17th 56 VE 

12:01 pm

"I hate this."

Young Naruto lay complaining on the carpeted ground in his new bedroom. Around him were several torn up leafs that he been trying to get to stick to his body, burn, crinkle, cut, get wet, or crumble. The first exercise mentioned in one of the books and all the possible signs of a Chakra nature.

It was so hard, first it had taken him over an hour of meditating just to get in touch with his chakra without Kaa-sama's help and even then it felt like he was going to burn up or explode from the pressure before his kaa-sama had given in and helped him control it all.

Even with Kaa-sama's helping hand, it was still hard. The Chakra required to hold the leaf to his head gave the boy a headache from the feeling of pressure and heat. Afterwards trying all the natures had made his arms feel like they were swelling.

'Don't worry about that,' was all that Kaa-sama would say when he had complained about the sensation. 'You'll get used to it soon.'

Trusting Kaa-sama, Naruto had just soldiered on and now had a headache.

'Just try one more time then you can go to bed,' Kaa-sama encouraged with a smile.

"Come on Kaa-sama," Naruto grumbled out loud as he wriggled onto his side. "It hurts to move my head, and the rest of me isn't much better."

'Once more please. I will tell you another story tonight as you go to bed if you do,' Kyuubi offered in hopes that that will get her kit moving.

For a moment it seemed to have no effect on the blond, but then he sighed before rolling onto his stomach before reaching for another piece of cloth. Kaa-sama's stories were just that good.

Kyuubi had just let a proud smile spread across her muzzle when she felt something. The Chakra exercises at least had the added bonus of pushing energy into the air letting her sense their immediate area. 'Naruto,' she started nervously as something twanged through her, distracting the boy and causing him to drop the leaf, 'Can you sense anything?'

Naruto frowned. "Like what?" he asked.

'I think someone is in our house.'

Naruto paled as fear bubbled up inside. "W-why?" he asked with a noticeable tremble. The Hokage had said that no one was supposed to be in here, it was his house! As he had said earlier, his kingdom!

'HIDE!' Kaa-sama shouted in his mind. Like her kit, she was certain that no one was supposed to be in here.

Naruto jerked off the ground and slid under the bed. The room wasn't furnished beyond the essentials, Hiruzen had left it that way so Naruto could choose what style he wanted to fill it with, and that made the bed and wardrobe the only things in the underfilled room for him to hide in.

Making a snap decision, Naruto scrambled for the bed and had just slid under when the door to his room opened.

From his painfully weak hiding place under the bed, Naruto could see two sets of feet enter the room. Memories of his first beating flashed through his mind as he saw them caused a tremble to take over his body before he stilled himself. It didn't help that he could also see the black aura that spread from them.

Whomever had invaded his home was oozing with black and red. The two colors dripped off of their legs as if it was being sweated out of their bodies but refusing to mix. Red was easy, rage while black was something else that made him sick to his stomach.

"Where is it?" One of the voices asked, jerking Naruto out of his terror and back to his current situation.

"I don't know, all the other rooms were empty," answered the second. Thankfully whomever they were, they were lazy, and Naruto almost sighed out loud with relief.

"Try in the wardrobe and under the bed you idiots," a third voice came from the room beyond the door. The third person however, wasn't lazy.

The two feet he could see started for the wardrobe, walking together instead of splitting up.

'Naruto,' Kaa-sama spoke, 'as soon as they pass towards the wardrobe, you make a break for the door. There is no way they will miss you when they check the bed. You need to get outside fast, and find the Hokage.'

'Hai,' Naruto answered mentally before preparing himself.

Naruto burst from under the bed as the sound of his wardrobe creaking open filled the room, making a beeline for the door.

"THERE HE IS!" shouted the voice of the first person who had complained. Naruto didn't even waste time glancing in their direction as he raced through the open door and out into the short hall in between his bedroom and the kitchen.

His mad dash was unfortunately cut short as a disturbingly familiar old man and an unfamiliar man in a Jonin uniform stood barring his way. Naruto skid to a stop and the unfamiliar man was on him in a second, one arm wrapping around Naruto's neck to grasp the bicep on his other arm, also known as a sleeper hold.

"So, you didn't even have the decency to die," the old man said, actually sounding sad, like a grandpa who just found out his grandkids had been bad.

Naruto growled at him, glaring for all he was worth as his tiny hands tried to force the adult Jonin's arms away from his neck. The Jonin only tightened his grip, causing black spots to appear in Naruto's vision.

Fear spiking, Naruto struggled like a landed fish, both hands trying to wriggle under the Jonin's fingers while he turned his head away. The spots were growing and Naruto felt his diaphragm shudder as it tried to draw breath through his constricted throat.

Unperturbed, the man holding him just stood up, causing Naruto to dangle by his neck. "You have a place ready for this thing, right?" the Jonin asked as Naruto's desperate struggles got weaker.

"Of course," the old man answered irritably, "Just do what Masaru told you and we'll take care of the rest."

In one last attempt, Naruto thrust his legs against the man and clawed at his hand. That move only strained Naruto's neck and used up the last of his oxygen.

Darkness enveloped his sight.

* * *

 **Dang this took far too long.**

 **REVIEWS!**

 **edo123456: There is no way that Naruto will immediately fall back into their family with a cheep, "all is forgiven" line.**

 **Perseus12: Is that the Shinobi way? She's more likely to poison the well.**

 **Kreceit: Naruko is coming next chapter. I wanted to take my time with this story and build a base before having Fem Naruto show up. Things that are going to change about her though are of course name and personality, there's no way she can be this abused and still be like cannon (unless she's brain damaged which I honestly think cannon Naruto was.)**

 **KuramaFTW: Read the review above.**

 **Blackholelord: The reason for that is because I'm taking my time going through the story. I wrote this because I was tired of "Poor Naruto BAM! Super powerful NARUTO Story over in five chapters, tops." I'm glad you put this on your list and know that their will be the events I put in the summary will happen.**


	6. Pain, Fear, and Change

**RISE FROM THE ASHES!**

 **This is an AU and will contain: Kyuubi Naruto, Fem Naruto, Abuse, gender change, and loss.**

 **Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto**

* * *

-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

 **"JUTSU NO NAME"** is a jutsu.

 **"Foolish monkeys,"** is Bijuu or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp

* * *

September 18th? 56 VE (Village Era)

? am

This wasn't right.

The world was supposed to be a cacophony of colors and tones, forming objects and giving depth the viewer so an understanding of the environment they found around themselves could be created. The view for one blond haired, bewhiskered viewer, however, was black as molasses and pressed warmly against his face.

It pressed like a black cloth tied around his face, smothering sight. 'Okay,' Naruto thought, surprisingly calm, 'Why would they blindfold me? Am I somewhere I might recognize? Then again, I haven't been many places so far.'

The calm and logical thoughts the jinchuriki was following hadn't been there an hour or two ago. As soon as that Jounin had choked the consciousness out of him, Naruto's mind had reverted to the mindscape.

(Earlier}

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" the mental projection of Naruto's conscious thoughts screamed in terror. The lack of oxygen combined with the exhaustion from accessing his chakra and brief struggle a moment ago had knocked him out like a light and didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon.

Thus the terrified screaming.

"AAAHHHHHHH!-"

"QUIET!" Kaa-sama roared as loudly as she could from her cage. The terror they were feeling was understandable but it was annoying and helped no one.

Naruto clamped his lips shut in response but his eyes were watering as he looked at her. "Ka-Kaa-sama, they caught me" he whispered, tears overflowing his eyes and running down his cheeks, "Am I going to die now?"

Kyuubi no Kitsune, a fox the size of a mountain, recognized as a sign of the apocalypse, the most powerful of the Biju, and beloved mother to this tiny kit growled her answer solemnly, like she was giving an oath. "No. Not if I have anything to say about it Musuko."

Naruto sniffed, trying to get his tears back and moved forwards, right up to the bars, before reaching through and holding Kaa-sama's hand. "Thank you," he sobbed. Kyuubi hummed a comforting tone as she soothed her kit.

Kyuubi comforted him for a bit, letting all that dark blue fear flow off of him. After a bit, she knew they needed to move on. "We can't change what's happened, so let's focus on what we do now," she said, getting Naruto's attention. Delving back into memory, she started giving the boy a half remembered lesson Kushina had received about capture and counter interrogation techniques.

-{}-

Naruto tried to follow Kaa-sama's instructions the second he returned to consciousness. The cloth on his face prevented him from learning anything by sight, so instead he strained his ears and body, trying to hear the room around him while carefully moving his limbs to see if anything was injured or bound.

'Arms tied behind back, legs hobbled together, and blindfolded,' he mentally cataloged and reported to Kaa-sama as calmly as he could.

'How cold are you? What does the ground feel like?' Kaa-sama encouraged more information.

'I'm really cold and the side touching the ground is the coldest part of me. The ground feels like metal,' was Naruto's shivered response. His arm against the ground was significantly colder than the rest of him so he must have been laying there for a while.

'Tied up, blindfolded and tossed in a metal crate then,' Kyuubi concluded before asking, 'What about Chakra? Can you feel it and can you move it like we were practicing?'

Manipulating his hands was shockingly hard for Naruto to do past his wrists, but he managed to get them into the ram seal and send out a tiny burst of Chakra. 'Yes, I can, but my hands and arms are moving slowly,' he confirmed.

'Your circulation is being cut off,' Kaa-sama noted but was rather relieved by the test. 'At least they didn't put some kind of suppression seal on you, not that it'd matter since you don't know any jutsu to use.'

"I think the fox is up."

The sudden, unconcerned adult male voice from above caused Naruto to tense and try to identify where it was coming from.

"So what? It's just twitching on the ground instead of laying there, not bothering us yet."

The second voice was female and sounded rather mean. Thanks to it though, Naruto was able to determine that whomever was in the room with him was standing in the direction his feet were pointing. 'Maybe that's the front of the room?' he wondered, trying to orient himself.

"We're supposed to tell Masaru if he woke up, remember?" The male voice drawled, "So, you want to be the one to watch it while I go inform him or vice versa?"

"Sure, I'll watch it," the woman's voice responded in a bored tone.

A second later a grunt and the sound of retreating footsteps were heard from where the voices had been coming from, the steps going to Naruto's right. 'Hard floor, not wood possibly concrete,' he noted, trying to think of places he had been with concrete floors. A moment or two later the sound of a heavy door opening and closing filled the room before silence took over.

What he could tell about his surroundings wasn't really helpful. Since he had only lived in one place the majority of his life, he couldn't think of a place with concrete floors apart from the orphanage basement, however, he doubted that anyone was foolish enough to take him back there.

"So," the woman's mean voice came again, making an attempt to make this sound like a normal conversation, "You know, you make a rather cute child Kyuubi. You should consider being a male prostitute, the pedofiles would absoultly love cleaning you out."

Naruto tired to ignore her and quietly felt the ground around him. Cold steel all around, like he had thought, but there was slightly hollow sound when he tapped on it, the metal was 'thin' gauge instead of plate and possibly a raised off the ground, it was more of a box then a cage then.

"On the other hand, you're defenidently too small up front for any of the poor girls to feel anything," the woman commented brightly. Naruto couldn't see it but she was leaning in close to the cage. "You'll definitely be able to draw in the male crowd though, your small 'stature' will work wonders there once they start to dress you up and bend you over the table."

Naruto frowned as a lot of what she was saying thankfully went over his head but made Kaa-sama growl in his mind. 'Ignore her,' Kaa-sama insisted, almost pleadingly, 'Nothing she's saying is helpful.'

The sound of the door opening again put an end to the woman's verbal abuse. A pair of footsteps came up to his cage, and then a male's voice spoke, "So, I hear you're awake."

Naruto twisted around until he could sit upright. The voice sounded younger than the other male voice, so it couldn't be the from the old man who scared him, which was a relief. The old man scared him more than the entire mob had with how cold and unfeeling he had been while hurting him.

"Not going to say anything? It's rude not to respond when someone is talking to you," the male voice continued, it sounded pleasant despite the admonishment. Naruto didn't trust it obviously, but it made him wonder why it was bothering to be 'nice' to him while he was tied up, blinded and in a cage. He stayed silent.

"Come on, don't be like that." Naruto was sure he felt the man get closer to the crate and him. Suddenly, a finger worked its way under the blindfold and light soon filled the world. After a moment or two of adjusting, Naruto looked around.

The room was maybe fifteen feet by twenty, empty racks along the old wooden walls showed that something had been stored there but had been moved out recently. The floor was concrete and he was sitting in a metal crate of some kind.

The man who had removed the blindfold was rather plain looking; he had two eyes, an average mouth, a sharp nose and light brown hair. His eyes, however, seemed empty; he looked disinterested, like he wasn't looking at anything important. His aura was as black as the void between stars.

Behind him was two people whom Naruto assumed were the two that had been watching him when he awoke. The woman was tall, flat grey eyes stared at him while she idally tugged at her black ponytail. The other man was stocky and bald. Both were dressed in 'standard' Shinobi uniform.

"Welcome to our little study, Nine tailed fox," he said, allowing a bright smile to show. "I hope we can solve the problem your existence creates quickly."

* * *

September 18th 56 VE

10:20 am

Masaru sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair as he left the Fox in it's cage. He had wasted an hour trying to get the thing to respond to him. He had hoped in vain that waking up in an enviroment like that would prompt some kind of talking, some kind of noise, or even just a tilt to the head that would give him a hint of what mood the Fox had right now. Sitting up was the only thing it had done in the entire hour.

'It's almost like someone had taught him how to resist interrogation,' he mused in the privacy on his mind. He wasn't an expert, not even part of the Torture and Interrogation squad for the village, but every Jonin was at least able to get solid answers from civilians through observation. Even small things like stance and tremors in response to questions or threats could tell an observant person everything to know about the one being interrogated.

The Fox had just sat there as if it wasn't even mentally aware of their existence. Proof in his mind about its true nature. Only a monster like the Nine Tails could care so little in a situation like this. No one could care so little unless they were prepared like a Jonin. A child like what the Hokage claimed this was would have caved in seconds.

Behind him, his two best friends in the world pushed the old dog crate they had appropriated from the Inuzuka clan compound's 'mad dog' kennel. Moving through the old warehouse, Masaru smirked in satisfaction.

The place they were calling the 'lab' was an old building. It had been constructed to hold excess arms and gear from the First Shinobi war and had seen use through the Second and Third ones as well. However, with everything calming down these past six years after the third war, the building had been closed off from the rest of the population with most of its contents stored in sealing scrolls for safety.

This left the group that Masaru led with a quiet, out of the way building that was empty most of the time except for occasional Jonin unlucky enough to be sent to maintain it once a month. As a bonus, the sealing room that had been used to put everything away had been used relatively recently after the war so they knew that was functionable once they were ready.

He had cordoned off most of the storage area, leaving them with the main sealing room and a few smaller rooms immediately around it. After declaring one of the larger rooms to be the main study room, he had brought in everything he might need to understand the seal on the Fox's body in and just studied.

There wasn't any professional seal masters in their little group unfortunately, but he knew the basics and should be able to find a way to merge the **Shinten Kugutsu Juin no Jutsu** (mind puppet switch cursed seal technique) to whatever was used to seal the fox before.

The room they were going to now was to the side of the main sealing room. It had the 'borrowed' components of the **Shinten Kugutsu Juin no Jutsu** all laid out for him, as well as a scroll on how they worked.

His contact in the Yamanaka clan had really come through for him. It was technically treason to give outsiders clan knowledge, but thankfully there hadn't been issues when Masaru explained what he needed it for.

Leading the way into the room, Masaru pointed the other two towards a clean table towards the center of the room. materials for the **Shinten Kugutsu Juin no Jutsu** were on a countertop set into the wall on one side.

The room resembled a professional teaching lab instead of a warehouse, with cabinets and countertops spanning along the walls. The room was ten meters by twenty meters with a large countertop island in the center of it, they had set up a spotlight for them to examine the Fox there. Another door than the one they had entered by was situated on the right hand wall.

There were no windows and the light either came from rather dim light fixtures built into the ceiling or the massive spot light shining down on the center. Sinks and miscellaneous outlets were spaced around the room. One of the cupboards had glass doors and held books: Sealing Theory vol I, II, III, and Advanced Sealing Theory.

Moving quickly, Masaru went to pour over the scroll detailing the **Shinten Kugutsu Juin no Jutsu** while his companions pulled the limp Fox out of the cage. "Find where the seal is," Masaru ordered, glancing over from where he stood, "We need to know exactly where it's attached to the Chakra network for this to take."

The two barely nodded in response as they produced kunai and started removing the Fox's clothes. The Fox started to squirm a bit when it felt the first cut, but both Jonin knew that it could heal itself and so didn't care if they cut a little deep and hit a bit of flesh with their strokes.

Naruto's eyes widened as the knives were produced and had to bite back a hiss as he saw them start cutting at his waist and move down his side to his ankle before repeating on his other side. "Awe~" the woman cooed as she carefully picked through the newly created scrap cloth in case there was anything dangerous, "So cute. He has monkey print briefs."

"Not important," the other man said while he cut away the Fox's shirt.

"You're no fun," Konno pouted.

Once Naruto had been stripped of the clothes the Hokage had lent him, they ran a stream of Chakra into their palms and started searching for the seals. They would be hard pressed to miss the large seal inscribed on the Fox's stomach, but they wanted to make sure that it was the only seal they were working with. No part of him was spared examination.

"I don't see anything else," Masaru noted as he returned attention to the seal. Walking over to a nearby cupboard, he retrieved a brush and paper.

"I'm sure there's another one somewhere," Konno smirked, reaching down to idly trace a finger along Naruto's crotch to his butt, more probing wherever she wanted and watching the Fox's face for what makes it uncomfortable than actually looking for a seal.

"How else would they keep it under control?" she reasoned, "A seal to keep the fox in this form and another to keep it under the delusion that it's a person. That's what we were certain the case was."

"Stop that, Konno, it's unsanitary," Masaru said, grabbing her wrist. She was a good friend of his, but at the same time, she was acting a little more invasive than he was comfortable with.

"Spoil sport," Konno muttered unhappily before consoling herself. She got a kick from watching people squirm, and while the Fox hadn't reacted to what she said earlier, it had looked uncomfortable while she had handled parts of its body with deliberate roughness. 'Soon, my little pain sissy,' a dark voice in her head promised, promoting a return of her smirk.

"Back to the task at hand," Hamadate, the other man in the room said, "There aren't any other marks or seals we have to worry about. How soon until you think we can mix the two techniques?"

"I'll need to look over everything to be sure," Masaru hedged, "but I should have a way in about a week. Sooner, depending on if I can break down the **Shinten Kugutsu Juin no Jutsu** and this seal down to its key components. Hamadate, can you take a picture of the Fox's seal?"

"Alright, I'll tell the others our timetable," Hamadate responded while picking up a camera to snap a quick shot of Naruto's stomach.

"Great," Konno chirped before poking Naruto on the leg causing him to tense again, "We done with this?"

"For now," Masaru said, stepping back, "Put it back in the cage and I'll study the copy of the Fox's seal."

"Right," Konno acknowledged. A plan on how to get some of her own brand of vengeance against the Fox starting to form in her mind.

* * *

September 18th 56 VE

10:50 am

Konno hummed as she pushed the cage back to the room where they were storing the Fox until they were ready for him. There was something so heady to her about having the one who caused such pain at her mercy, she couldn't help but add a little skip to her step and the aforementioned hum.

"You know," Konno said, breaking out of her tune and addressing the still naked child, "I think we should get to know each other, we're going to be spending awhile together after all." She gave a fake smile. "You can tell me about the many villages you've crushed under your paws, and I can tell you about my family."

Naruto was quiet, it was nothing he hadn't heard before. He pulled his legs up to hide what was between them, looked down at his feet and paid more attention to what Kaa-sama was whispering in his mind to drown her out. 'Don't say anything, don't react to anything. You're doing so good, I'm proud of you.'

"I had a mother and father, like every natural being has, of course," Konno continued, now ignoring the Fox's continued silence, "Do you have a mother and father? I don't think so, but if you did, what would they think of you?"

Naruto hadn't expected that. He had his Kaa-sama, his mother was literally within him, but what about his father? He knew that it took two to make a kit, so why hadn't Kaa-sama told him about who his father is? Or was?

Kyuubi shivered as she saw the questions caused by the woman growing in her kit's young mind. He would most certainly unleash them all on her as soon as he was sure they were alone and she had no answers for him that he would easily accept that wasn't the truth. She could lose her kit over the truth, unacceptable.

Unaware of the amount of silent confusion she was causing, Konno kept on running her mouth.

"I mean, I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror if I was a Fox like you. To be responsible for all the damages and lost life, I would be too ashamed of myself," Konno drawled while she moved the cage through the hall, keeping one eye on the Fox.

No response as expected, what she needed was to shock it into answering and getting the ball rolling. "Damn it!" she suddenly shouted, "Say something! Do you feel anything for those killed several years ago? When you crashed your way through our homes and families?"

Caught off guard by the sudden jump in volume, Naruto turned on his side away from her. twisting around until he was able to sit up, he sat up into a seated position before regarding her.

"What's to say?" Naruto finally spoke, shoveling his questions to the side and trying to sound boldly indifferent, "I doubt you'll care. If I begged for forgiveness, you won't care. If I rage at you for tying me down and striping me, you won't care. I don't think you'd care for any other emotions I could give the way you are now, so why try?"

Konno growled, showing anger as the Fox's words while inwardly she cheered at the progress. "You're right, I don't care. I was just curious if you had anything like shame or regret," Konno growled before adding, "Since now I know you don't feel any remorse, I have no regrets making you live like the animal you are while under our care."

'Don't respond anymore Kit,' Kaa-sama ordered, seeing the black and pink aura around the woman, 'She wants more reason to hurt you.'

'I know,' Naruto sighed, 'I wanted to see what would happen if I did respond.'

'Nothing good," Kaa-sama bemoaned before becoming quiet herself.

Surprisingly, Konno had nothing else to say all the way back to where they were going to keep him, but she also didn't provide any new clothes for him like she had said.

"Well, I'll leave you here. Be sure to ring for anything you need," Konno mocked with a smile before turning around and starting to leave. Before she had gone though, she turned back, marched over to the cage again and added. "I'm going to enjoy playing with you, maybe you'll prove me wrong about being unable to satisfy."

With her parting shot flying over Naruto's, but not Kaa-sama's, head, she turned and left.

Naruto waited a moment to reach out with his senses to see if he was actually alone before looking at the room around him. The room was kind of grey or brown. It was like the first room he woke up in, with nothing in it apart from his cage and empty storage shelves.

Part of him noted that there also wasn't a bowl or plate for food and water or anywhere for him to relieve himself in the room or cage, just a concrete floor and rough wooden walls.

'Well, this sucks,' Naruto shared his attempt at brave thoughts with Kaa-sama.

'It's going to suck even worse in about half an hour or so,' was the unfortunate, bubble bursting reply from his mother, 'Your hands have been bound too tight and for too long. They're starting to die.'

"WHAT?!" Naruto shrieked in a panic, jackknifing off the ground, and promptly falling back onto his side as his feet slid out from under him.

'You need to get out of the bonds,' Kyuubi stated the obvious, 'They don't have any suppression seals on you right now so here's what you do.' She remembered this one, the rope escape technique was taught to all Shinobi and was covered twice over for Kushina since she was a Jinchuriki and again after her attempted kidnapping for her bloodline.

"I think, I got it!" Naruto cried happily as the rope slipped off his wrists. Then moaned as a wave of pain registered as new blood flowed into the previously bereft part of his limbs. 'OWWW!' he screamed inside of his head as he tried to keep any sound from being formed.

Bringing his arms around from his back, Naruto's eyes widened as he saw how dark purple, near black, they had become. They throbbed in time with his heart, before a warm feeling engulfed them. As the warmth slowly died, the color slowly turned a lighter red.

'There we go,' Kaa-sama said encouragingly as she sent a sliver of her own Chakra through the cage into him to save the hands. She gave him a moment or two to get himself under control before moving on, 'We should check out the cage, see if we can get out.'

'...Right,' Naruto thought with a shiver. Seeing his fingers like half cooked sausages had frightened him.

The cage was made from a reused metal dog cage with mesh bars instead of walls and the latch was connected to a removable top. There were holes in the top so that whatever was inside the cage had air even if the sides were covered and was completely visible from every angle except for directly underneath.

'Can I break the lock?' Naruto wondered, spying a padlock on on one side.

'I'm not sure,' Kyuubi fibbed. She knew that her kit couldn't break it himself, he was far too young for that. However, if she channeled a lot of her own naturally corrosive chakra through his body she could damage the lock enough for him to break out.

The issue with that plan was that it would require her to pump at least a tails worth or more of chakra through her cage to be lost before they could melt through the lock and who knows where the tails went or what they were doing to her kit's body.

She only had four and a half tails remaining, would it be worth the risk of tampering with her cage?

'Hey, kaa-sama?' Naruto's voice interrupted her thoughts.

'Yes?' she asked. She could feel that her kit wasn't focused on the cage anymore, what was he thinking about.

'Do I, do Ihaveafather?' The child rushed out his question. An embarrassed flush quickly grew on his face and he looked down to hide the expression, causing him to miss the shocked expression on Kaa-sama's face.

Damn it, she had hoped to avoid these kinds of questions. Kyuubi's thoughts raced as she tried to think of an appropriate answer. 'Everybody has a father,' she tried stating, memories of her own father, the sage of six paths, prevented her from lying and saying no. She tried to appease Naruto's curiosity without delving further.

'Then where's mine?' the boy asked the obvious question.

'He left the day after you were born,' Kyuubi started with something easy, 'I never saw him after that.'

'...' Naruto was quiet for a moment after that.

'Did he want me?' Naruto eventually asked, looking up.

'I don't know. He left with his wife the day you were born and didn't come back,' Kyuubi answered. She honestly didn't know what Minato was thinking when he came up with this plan nor did she want to talk about Naruto's parentage. She only knew that she wasn't going to lose her claim on this kit. In the end, she said the one thing she could think of while being honest to get him to drop it despite how cruel it might be.

Naruto's eyes started to tear up again and ducked his head again, pulling himself in a bit. He felt abandoned, cut off by this 'father' he has never seen.

Carefully slipping a paw between the bars, Kyuubi reached out to her kit. "Musuko, how about this," she called out to the human, "I'll tell you more about him after we get back to the den. Once we're safe I'll tell you about our father.'

Naruto's mental avatar peeked at Kaa-sama and, seeing the proffered hand, he crawled over and squeezed it. Moving the hand up Kyuubi ran her fingers through his hair. "...Okay," he finally acknowledged after a moment.

"Until then," Kyuubi continued, she pitched her voice so that it was more upbeat, like she had just remembered happy days, "I can tell you about my siblings. Can't believe I forgot to tell you about my brothers and sisters."

Naruto frowned, his kaa-sama hadn't told him about any any siblings apart from mentioning that she had some.

"I'm the eldest of nine, and our father, your grandfather was soooo cool-" Kyuubi launched into a lengthy, polarized, retelling to her kit about the other Biju and her father the sage. All the while she warred with herself over whether or not to use her tail.

* * *

September 18th 56 VE

1:20 pm

"Damn this is complicated," Masaru mused as he poured over the Yamanaka clan jutsu. He hadn't left the room they had examined the demon in, but now the center table was covered in the books on sealing that had been stored in the glass cupboards, the picture of the Fox's seal, his own drawings of the seal, and the Yamanaka clan jutsu scrolls, all to help him compare to the two seals.

This was so hard, the two seals weren't as compatible as he thought they would be. There didn't seem to be any corresponding parts. Seals in his experience should have some similarities to each other, like how all screwdrivers had a similar shape, that despite the different heads they were still the same tool kind of thing.

What he was trying to do was take the handle of one screwdriver and attach it to the shank of another. The issue was that seals weren't common tools like the screwdriver, they were highly sophisticated and specialized tools that he was trying to jam together.

"Maybe if I create a third seal to bridge the gap between them," Masaru mused outloud. There were elements in the demon's seal that appeared to deal with the mind, in what ways he wasn't sure, while the majority of the Yamanaka seal revolved around the mind.

After hours of studying both seals he had given up. There just wasn't any easy way to connect the two naturally, so a third seal might be the best option.

"How's it going?" Hamadate asked. He had just come back from a shift with the regular Jonin. He needed to keep doing his regular assignments to keep their actions private from the Hokage.

"I think I've found a way to use the seals," Masaru answered, picking up a copy of the picture they took of the demon seal. "If I add connections here and here," drawing circles to indicate the parts on the paper, Masaru showed his thoughts, "I think I can create a third seal that bridges the gap and makes the demon's seal react to the mental controls built into the Yamanaka seal."

"What do the parts you'd need to alter on the Fox do?" Hamadate asked. Altering that seal sounded risky to him, the Yamanaka seal didn't hold back evil incarnate after all.

"They deal with the mind. It's how they forced the child-like mind on the fox," Masaru said with more confidence then he felt. "I alter this part to create an opening and create an adapter seal to cross the 'gap', with that I can meld the two seals together seamlessly. Allowing someone to take over the Fox's mind." The confident smirk on Masaru's face successfully hid just how much of this he was pulling out his ass.

"How long until you have created the third seal?" Hamadate asked, getting excited.

"Not long," Masaru answered, "if I'm right we could do it soon, tonight even but I should take a week or so to test things."

"So a we-" Hamadate started to say before.

"The sooner the better." Konno's voice announced her entrance by interrupting the two men.

Turning to the Kunoichi, Masaru raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?" he asked. Rushing a seal wasn't a good idea even for a master.

"I've been watching the little shit try to get out of it's bonds," she answered before shooting a look at Hamadate, "Apparently it can use regular Jutsu despite what you thought, Hama."

Hamadate blinked. "It can?" he asked, "I thought that its Chakra would be too dense to use regular Jutsu, like all the other Biju."

"Maybe in a human shape it can't use all it's Chakra, so what's left can be used like a person," Konno hypothesised, "Makes sense since no one would want a fully charged monster running around the village all the time, human shape or not."

"So we're going to have to temporarily seal it's chakra further, great," Masaru grumbled, "Anything else to report?"

"No, the Fox just sat in it's cage after that. Looks like it can't figure a way out of the cage for now, but I don't want to wait for it to find one," Konno finished reporting before composing a mental list. She would need to hurry to get everything if she had only a week to play with it.

Masaru sighed, "Well then. I guess I'll get back to the seal. Hamadate, I need you to keep covering for me back with the other Jonin, I don't think I'll be coming in at all this week see if you can't create some drama to keep the rest of the village busy while you're there. Konno, keep an eye on the Fox while I'm busy."

"Right," Hamadate said calmly before leaving.

"Will do~," Konno replied, a carefully neutral expression on her face before she too left the room. 'I'll break your human illusion and show you what an animal you are,' she promised the Fox as she left.

Masaru sighed as he turned back to his work. Trying to fit a seal inside a small puppet was going to be an issue.

* * *

September 18th? 56 VE

? pm

Back at the storage room, an enraptured Naruto was jerked out of his mother's tales by a hand literally grabbing him by his scalp. Cursing, the child realized that he had let his guard down and someone had gone as far as to open the cage without him noticing.

"Hey, guess what foxy-chan?" the kunoichi was back, "We're going to have some fun." Raising the jinchuuriki up until he was standing, she slapped a seal on his head with enough force to leave a cherry red imprint before twisting him around to look him in the eye.

The smile on her face pulled a frightened squeak from Naruto, but the things she had brought into the room with her caused caused the blood in his veins to freeze.

Picking up the first thing out of the bucket she had brought with her, Konno sighed dreamily. Naruto tried to back up as her aura grew blacker until it blotted out everything but a vein of pink running through the center.

"After I teach you how, we're going to have so much fun," Konnon licked her lips. A small dog's pinch collar dangled from her finger and a shit eating grin prophesied what was coming next.

* * *

September 26th 56 VE

4:50 pm

There was something wrong. Hiruzen was in his office trying to dig himself out from under the piles of paperwork that had been generated by the trade merchants. Apparently there had been some kind of conflict that led to a short lived feud between his village and the merchants in the land of waves that required him to look over all the contracts they had with the merchants over there.

On top of that, someone had misplaced the cleaning schedule for the storage warehouses and hadn't reported it for five whole days. It wasn't an important document, but it was something that needed to exist if only to stop lazy Jonin from skiving. It had delayed the warehouse cleaning, but apart from that hadn't messed too much with his own schedule.

Still, despite the headway he was making in trying to identify what was the cause of the merchant disagreement and finally finding the schedule, he was sure that he was missing something. The feeling kept moving just out of his reach whenever he tried to grapple with it.

"Another report has come in from the border," his assistant moved into the room carrying a large pile of papers for him to look over.

Hiruzen frowned as he knew that that wasn't what he was talking about, but it was important anyways. Moving forwards, his assistant placed the papers on the table next to him, and retreated from the room.

"What was it?" Hiruzen thought out loud as he picked up the first paper. Reading through reports didn't inspire him to remember, and it was bugging him. Picking up his pen, Hiruzen signed his name on the delivery note.

Moving through the new pile, Hiruzen quickly read over the papers until he noticed a discrepancy. He found a paper that wasn't a normal border report hidden away inside the papers. About four papers in from the top was a copy of the report above it, only this time there was small doodle along the side.

Normally it would be a small crime to copy or deface a report, but since the 'doodle' was a surreptitious storage seal, it meant that something was being slipped to him in secret. Biting his thumb, Hiruzen opened the seal.

A small puff of smoke briefly covered the false report before clearing up and revealing a new (and thankfully small) stack of papers on his desk. Picking it up, Hiruzen read the note.

 _Hey, old man._

 _How's things going? We've finally set up the perfect cover. Minato has a report or two for you to look over but that's not important now. I have the best of news, Mariko's first word was 'mum'! She's sooooo adorable that I have to resist eating her up. She has my hair but thankfully not my round face, I would hate for her to have the same issue I did growing up. No return of the 'tomato head' for us thank you very much._

Hiruzen sighed in relief, for a moment he had feared that someone had infiltrated the border patrol, but that fear was laid to rest since it was just the first report from Kushina and Minato. Shaking his head in amusement at her happy words, Hiruzen continued reading.

 _How's Naruto doing? What was his first word? Does he look like me or his father? So many questions that I can't fit them all on the page. TELL ME EVERYTHING DATTEBANE! For getting in contact with us, all you need to do is send an extra copy of your orders to the same border station this one came from with a seal on it. We have a way of getting it from there._

 _I'll turn the rest of the letter over to Minato, he's got the boring details._

 _Hope to see you soon~_

 _Kushina Uzumaki_

Hiruzen smiled as the mental image of Kushina, Minato, and the perfect blend of the two standing in between them came to him. The small baby hand prints by the signiture were a nice touch.

Then he sat straighter in his chair. That's what was bothering him, he hadn't seen Naruto in over a week. The reports said that he was fine, no dangerous disturbances in the apartment complex he had placed him in, but that didn't tell him anything about the boy himself, and he had promised to visit Naruto's 'kingdom' eventually. A week was probably long enough.

Moving out from around his desk, Hiruzen let himself escape the torment of paperwork for a while.

* * *

September 26th 56 VE

5:10 pm

Coming down the street, Hiruzen allowed a small frown to grow on his face as he noticed some differences between the street now and the last time he had walked this way. The streets leading up to the apartments had less and less people walking them as he got closer until they were almost empty. When he had brought Naruto here there had been kids running around and laughter from the adults.

Arriving at the complex, he found more alarming changes. The building now was as quiet as a grave. There weren't even adults on the street, and there were small burn marks in the grass around the building like someone had dumped their ashes into the now dry grass. A worrying suspicion growing in his mind, Hiruzen hurried forwards towards the stairs.

As he started up the stairs and passing the various landings, Hiruzen's heart dropped as he saw empty floors. This building had been full of families just last week, but now it was as empty as his wallet after offerning to feed a pregnant Kushina.

This place however was worse. The building was not just empty but abandoned, and abandoned in a hurry. Doors stood forlornly open and random pieces of furniture or clothes lay on the ground as if those who had lived here had left and didn't bother to pick them up.

All this evidence caused an uneasy frown to grow on the Hokage's face.

Arriving at the top, Hiruzen zeroed in on Naruto's door, the only one that wasn't open. Taking that as a good sign, the old man moved over and knocked. "Naruto? Are you there my boy?"

No answer.

Worried, Hiruzen opened the door and let himself in.

The first room was empty so he quickly moved onwards, the second room also was empty and had a smell of dust in it. There weren't any used dishes in the sink or by the table, so either Naruto was a very clean little boy or he hadn't used them yet.

Shinobi children were very mature but for some reason he doubted Naruto was that mature. Starting to panic a little, Hiruzen sprinted through to the bedroom. A quick look around confirmed everything. There was no mistaking it, no one was here.

Naruto was gone.

 **"ANBU!"** Hiruzen shouted and was rewarded with the sound of his elite hitting the floor around him, ready for orders. "Naruto is gone," he summarized, "Get me the Jonin currently on guard and Squirrel, find Masaru."

"Hai!" the four ANBU acknowledged before vanishing in a shunshin jutsu.

Within seconds three members of his personal guard had returned with the current guards. "I have some questions for you to answer," Hiruzen demanded with a glare at the disoriented Jonin, "Where is your charge?"

The team in charge of watching the building shivered. Most of the five guards were young Jonin or high Chunin who had grown up with fond memories of the grandfatherly old man, now they were forcibly reminded of the fact that the Hokage was a Shinobi to end Shinobi as well.

"Sir," a brave Chunin started when his Jonin leader remained petrified, "We were told to watch this building for people entering or exiting this apartment, there was nothing in our orders about a 'charge' or who lived here. We thought it was a meeting place for a traitor or something. "

"Hm," Hiruzen kept his face blank as his thought raced behind his eyes. The mission required those guarding Naruto to know what they were doing, he hadn't hidden the fact that they were guarding the Jinchuriki in his orders. He wanted the mission parameters be leaked so people would leave him alone.

"And has anyone come into this building?" Hiruzen asked, trying to get a clear picture of what was happening.

"No one has come in or out of this apartment since Head Jonin Masaru cleared it late last week," the Chunin answered.

At this time, ANBU captain Squirrel returned. "Hokage-sama," she reported, "Jonin Masaru hasn't been into the office for missions for several days, he was apparently given a long rest after a mission according to the workers in the office. No one knows where he is."

'Missing Naruto, missing Masaru, neither seen in about a week,' The puzzle before him quickly formed into a recognizable shape in Hiruzen's mind. 'Traitor.'

"I want every Shinobi looking for Masaru and Naruto Uzum-"

Before Hiruzen could finish speaking a wave of Chakra flooded the room, passing through those inside. All Shinobi in the village froze where the stood, sat, or lay. Civilians with no training at all started to panic as the flood of Killer intent and Chakra passed through them. In several homes children passed out to their parents shock as their confused senses told them to run, fight, and die all at once.

'Kyuubi,' the collective thought was before activity exploded across the village. Reactions varied from old members of various clans moving as if they were back in the third Shinobi war, to Genin running around looking for their Jounin sensei.

In the apartment Hiruzen shivered as his mind flashed back to the night the Kyuubi had escaped. Rushing to the balcony the Hokage looked around, convinced that he would see the same ploom of smoke that had announced the arrival of the Fox years ago.

'This is the second time this has happened,' a small part of him noted, it wasn't good for his health to keep having these kinds of scares every week. Regardless, the last time a false alarm occurred it was only a small burst of Kyuubi Chakra that was felt, here the pressure was a constant.

And coming from the south.

 **"FOLLOW ME!"** Hiruzen shouted, not caring to whom he was shouting at, before leaping towards the source. The party of Jonin and ANBU Shinobi raced after him, towards the site of the Chakra explosion. They leapt streets and sometimes entire buildings as they tried to keep up with the old man while said old man did his best to leave even his own shadow behind as he charged towards the spot he prayed his young charge wasn't.

Landing on the ground in front of the place, Hiruzen took in the scene.

In front of him was one of the village's weapon storage warehouses, a large, plain building made out of thick brown wood and concrete, set slightly apart from the rest of the village for the safety of the civilians but close enough for any Shinobi to reach quickly.

The building was damaged. There wasn't a large orange fox standing over the building so Hiruzen took that to be a good sign, however, there was a large column of smoke rising from a hole in the roof and debris littered the grass and road around the building.

"Set up a watch," the Hokage ordered the ANBU that were only now arriving, "I want no one to enter the building until I've given the all clear."

"Yes, sir," the leader of his guard said before she started giving her own orders.

Hiruzen ignored the people moving around him and walked into the building.

* * *

The building was a mess. There were piles of fallen ninja tools everywhere. Kuni, Swords, and Shuriken lay in scattered piles where the shelves that had held them were fallen over. Other Ninja gear made their own messes where the blast had thrown them.

The damage horrified Hiruzen as he thought about the explosive tags this building held and he almost jumped to the walls to hurry around the clutter. However a heavy groan coming from the wall he place his hand against stopped him from adding more weight to it. The slight shift from his hand pressing against it was concerning.

Taking the safer option, Hiruzen picked his way through the mess of sharp objects towards the seal storage.

It took awhile for the Hokage to get past the tool storage, but he let time pass as he navigated around the junk. Finally reaching the door between the tool storage and the seal storage, he opened it, praying the damage wasn't as bad here.

Thankfully, the Chakra from whatever the blast had been hadn't set off any of the explosive tags or any of the more 'interesting' seals.

The floor in this part of the building wasn't covered in a mess of scattered supplies, the scrolls containing the volatile seals were held securely in boxes against the wall. The ink and brushes, on the other hand, were splattered around, leaving black spots on the walls.

It was only a little deeper into the hall that Hiruzen found the first body. The man on the ground was hard to identify, his head had apparently been smashed into the ground then smeared down the hallway which made it impossible to tell just who he was. The flak jacket and clothes, however, suggested that he was at least a Chunin.

Regardless, this place was supposed to be empty, unless he had drawn the short straw and been assigned to janitorial duty. Even that couldn't be the answer since that wasn't scheduled to happen until next week because of someone messing up the rounds. Why was he here?

'It's rather odd,' he thought after checking for the basics, a pulse, genjutsu, false death technique. No sign of any existed. 'Someone losing the cleaning schedule, delaying whomever was supposed to be here this week, just as Masaru goes missing.' More pieces of the disturbing puzzle fell into place.

Either way, this man was dead.

Finally, the Hokage reached the epicenter of the blast. The room was torn apart, shelves had been crushed into the wall, the ceiling had a large hole that left the area open to the elements. Glass from a cabinet had been driven into the books they used to hold. A side wall had fallen over what used to be a cupboard.

Coming into the room didn't provide any answers at first. It was hard to find anything in the mess of rubble that had fallen back to earth after the blast. Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about the ceiling falling in on him.

All in all, it was a massive mess that hid what he needed.

Spotting a small pool of what must be blood, Hiruzen moved over and carefully lifted a bit of the wall off. Underneath was a man he recognized. Masaru had obviously seen better days, he honestly looked half dead. The man was ashen from loss of blood and had a new stump for an arm were the most obvious injuries.

Feeling for a pulse, the Hokage got one. 'I'll need him as witness,' Hiruzen thought despite his anger at what must have happened in order for this situation to occur. Glancing around, Hiruzen spotted a leg sticking out from under the fallen section of wall.

Taking a moment, Hiruzen used a low powered fire jutsu to cauterize the bleeding. It would take far too long for him to use **iryojutsu** (medical ninjutsu) to fully stabilize him and he needed to investigate the second person. **"ANBU,"** Hiruzen called out in a powerful voice, **"I need assistance in here. Don't walk on the walls, it's unstable."**

Now knowing that help was on the way, Hiruzen moved on. Lifting the wall was hard for the old man, but he managed to lift enough to get a good look at the injured person

Under the wall was a young woman in standard Jonin garb, she seemed to be the most injured but still alive out of what he had seen so far. She had lost a leg and lay in a pile of glass shards, it looked like someone had put her through a glass blender. Hiruzen repressed a shudder as it reminded him of the only time he had seen someone executed by **Lingchi**.

She seemed awake somehow, one eye was dilated too far to be normal and didn't move but the other was locked on his figure. She would need a medic constantly at her side to stabilize her. Thankfully the ANBU were already arriving and he was able to hand her care off to a masked man.

"What happened here?" An ANBU operative asked the question on everyone's mind.

"Investigate the area," Hiruzen ordered as an ANBU operative took the wall from him. "I want these two healed enough for interrogation, Inoichi and Ibiki are to have free reign on the two of them until I know everything that happened here."

After a moment or two he added, "There's only one person in the village with the Chakra we felt, search for Naruto Uzumaki. He must be here."

The ANBU silently got to work, some carefully shifting rubble while others looked at the blast marks to try and see where they emanate from. Work paused as a low gurgle pulled their attention to the woman. "foks gone od mun," she laughed though blood, "foks gone. A gosh sho phlay! He heheheheheh-"

"What is she saying?" someone further back asked.

Hiruzen shook his head. "Can't tell," he temporised, "Take them to the medical ward in the T&I. I want what they know and the second Inoichi can get into their minds." The ANBU acknowledge the order and removed the giggling woman.

"We've got some scrolls over here," ANBU operative Baboon called out, picking up a torn scroll with the Yamanaka clan mark on it. The others returned to searching while Hiruzen walked over to investigate.

Hiruzen frowned, unable to completely keep his worry down. 'How did that get here?' he wondered. Yamanaka clan scrolls being involved only raised his fears even more. More thought was halted by another ANBU calling him over.

"Hokage-sama, we found Uzumaki."

Hiruzen moved to the operative so quickly that even some of the ANBU thought that he had **Shunshined** there.

The boy was pale, limp, naked, and smelled like he had been sleeping in refuse. He wasn't awake and was bleeding from numerous cuts and scratches, bruises were forming around the boy's torso and a frightening one was growing around his neck. His breath seemed slow, like an afterthought instead of an automatic action.

Nothing was healing.

'Jinchuuriki, and Uzumaki have have improved healing,' the Hokage reminded himself, looking at the wounds as they refused to heal. For none of them to be healing meant that something was holding back his chakra, a seal or some kind of fundamental condition.

"I'll take him to the hospital," he ordered while he planned out his next step, "No one is to get in or out unless I give my personal say so." He would need to be cautious while checking Naruto's body for seals without Jiraiya there and in a hospital would be the best place to do so in case something goes wrong.

"Hai Hokage-Sama," the ANBU captain recognized the order.

"Continue to investigate the area, try to piece together what happened here. Masaru 'checked' the apartment where Naruto lived over a week ago, that is when you'll start. I want a timeline of what happened here from that moment to now, the entire week," Hiruzen said sliding out of his Hokage robe and wrapping it around Naruto.

A quick hand sign later and a **Kage Bunshin** of the old man appeared to watch over the investigation. "I'll leave my **Kage Bunshin** to give permission as needed and in case a report needs to be given quickly," he said and received an nod before he picked up Naruto's body.

With his orders given, Hiruzen left as quickly as the unsafe structure would allow.

* * *

? 56-7? VE

? pm

"Kaa-sama? Kaa-sama?" A voice called into the open air around it. There was no response to the call, but it did draw a confused glance from some in the nearby Hyuuga compound.

The child's life had never been very happy and her broken voice reflected that. In recent times she had been kidnapped, stripped, touched... and something else that caused a throbbing pain behind her skull every time she tried to remember what happened, but worse than all that in her opinion was the silence from her Oka-sama.

The child calling for her mother was small. She had short ragged blond hair much like she had before and a trio of faint lines spread from her mouth outwards, but that was about where her similarities to 'Naruto' ended. She had a thin face with pronounced cheek bones, red slitted eyes, and an emaciated body.

In the real world, she stood, unaware that she was in the middle of Senju clan grounds. No one was there to see her, and it was starting to get cold as the sun lowered. She shivered as a wind blew through the trees and reminded her of that fact. Her tails automatically moved around to hug at her limbs and torso, trying to create some kind of warm, pseudo clothes.

Something else that she didn't share with her previous body was the nine long, bushy yellow tails that came from somewhere above her butt and whipped around the air behind her whenever she was idle.

Drawing warmth from the appendages, the girl's eyes unfocused again and she tried to call out again. "KAA-SAMA! WHERE ARE YOU?!" The cry rang out both externally and internally as she tired to look into the vague mess that was her mindscape.

She didn't appear in the room where she had first met Kaa-sama. She honestly didn't know where she was now, her head had become a strange place over the last few weeks.

Was it weeks or days? She had stayed in the cage, locked in a windowless room for however long that woman wanted her as a hate toy, sleeping and waking to her scedual instead of her bodies narutal rhythm. She had lost track of time in there and hadn't resynced with the outside world yet.

On top of that, like with the orphanage, she had never before ventured outside of the room that had made up her sheltered mental space. Nothing had needed to be there before, so she had no idea what it looked like now.

She was surprised by what she found. If she hadn't deliberately gone into her mind, she wouldn't have been able to see any differences to the world now around her. The new appearance of her mind looked like a forest reminiscent of the one she was standing within in the real world.

She shivered in fear, finding her own mind to be so strange and unknown frightened her more then anything physical she could think of.

Shaking her head and slapping her cheeks, the girl refocused. She was alright, and she would prove it by moving forwards.

Picking up her step, she started drifting deeper into the forests that had become her mindscape. Peering around each tree, she tried to find anything that looked familiar or that she could remember as a landmark.

After a minute or two of searching, she came across an open clearing with a destroyed building in the center.

The building had a tilt to it like it was falling over drunk. The door lay in the dirt over ten meters from the arch it had come from. It looked old, classically styled, and homely despite the destruction. Completely unfamiliar but, through the opening, she could catch a glimpse of the room that had meant so much to her.

Perking up a bit, the girl let a light smile grow before darting towards the building. She had been in pain for a long time, been violated by that woman, and … something else that hurt her head to even think about, but none of that mattered to her here and now.

Her Oka-sama was inside the building. In a moment or two she would burst in and throw herself forwards to be held in the strong and warm limbs of her vulpine mommy and she would make it all better.

Racing forwards, she slipped through the hole in the wall into the main room. The building was one large, single room that had symbolised the be all and end all of her mindscape before they took her.

Now it was a mess that she couldn't even recognize. The room was as destroyed inside as the outside was. The ceiling now had a massive hole in it while the ground had nine trenches splayed out from the center of the room. It looked like a tornado had come though, or some multi fingered giant had decided to punch through the roof to pull up the pipes in one fell swoop.

Coming to a stop, she stared in horror at the room around her.

Before her was the center of the room, the most important place to her in the mindscape, where her mother's cage usually stood and she would sprawl on the floor as a boy listening to the tales her mother knew.

Whatever had happened, it had taken a scoop out of the center of her world.

There just wasn't even a cage any longer. Kaa-sama was gone, cage and all.

-{}-

September 26th 56 VE

5:41 pm

Sliding from a dead bolt to a near stop, Hiruzen pushed through the hospital doors, eyes searching for the nurse at the station. "I need help now," The Hokage declared as he spotted the nurse at the reception desk. Three nurses from around the room instantly moved to obey at the man's tone alone.

One, however, turned back after getting a look at who was in his hands.

"He was missing for a week and then was in the middle of an explosion," Hiruzen ignored the deserter and summed up what he knew, "I don't know what happened to him during that time. I need the best care you can give."

The one nurse moved to get a gurney while the other started checking Naruto for a pulse, eyes for dilation, and temperature. All of these checks brought a larger and larger frown to her face as she processed what they told her.

"Put him here. We'll take him from here," the second nurse said, returning with the gurney.

Hiruzen put Naruto down, but shook his head. "Please let me stay with him, I promised his parents that I'll watch over him. I have failed too much so far," the Hokage all but begged.

The nurses shared a surprised look, it was against hospital policy to let people into the intensive care room but at the same time it was the Hokage. On top of that, the thought that the demon child had parents struck them as odd, flying in the face of the 'facts' they had heard around the village.

Eventually they acquiesced. "Don't touch anything, don't get in the way, and wear a mask and I think we can make an exception," the senior Nurse stated the conditions. Hiruzen gave an understanding nod before following along, praying that there was something that could be done for Naruto.

-{}-

She sat there looking at the hole that used to be Kaa-sama.

It was like the world had somehow gotten smaller, colder, more hostile in that split second. Her body felt like it was shutting down, her mind drifting further and further into darkness the longer she stared at the hole. Oka-sama wasn't there to hold her anymore, her rock had been ripped out from under her.

A lance of pain suddenly stabbing at her head caused her to groan as the last few hours worth of memories returned to her.

Nine tails flailing around, digging trenches into the ground to anchor herself to the ground. Kaa-sama's face in a rictus of pain and fear as the stream of rope like Chakra pulled her tight against the top of the metaphysical cage she lived in. Her pained glance towards her kit as she was lifted from the cage floor.

A gasp escaped the girl's throat as the pain in her head increased.

There was so much pain as the images changed, focusing more and more on herself, on the girl who had been Naruto.

"Who is Naruto?' she asked herself. The thought seemed snap her out of the painful memories. Her scattered identity swirled around her as she tried to answer. She wasn't Naruto now, but she remembered being him. Did that make her Naruto? Who was she? The question brought a different kind of pain with it and the more she thought about it the more pain it brought.

"I am naruto."

She tried to clear her mind by speaking outloud and immediately shook her head. It didn't mean anything, 'naruto' was a word to her, not a name. That caused a new question that sent shivers down her spine

"Who am I now?"

-{}-

"Hokage-sama," the doctor's voice roused Hiruzen from his thoughts.

The Doctor had been enjoying a light workload this evening when a nurse had rushed in with a gurney. Even more shocking was the child wrapped in white cloth and the old man following behind them. Not letting his surprise distract him, Doctor Yoichi had immediately gone to work. Hiruzen taking a seat to the side and watched, thinking back on everything he had done since he last saw the boy.

"How is he?" the old man asked, feeling every one of his sixty-nine years, "Will he recover?"

"I don't think he will recover," Doctor Yoichi crushed his leaders hopes with a frown, "He's in a coma and that's the best thing I can say about him."

Hiruzen felt pain as he looked to the 'sleeping' child. "What are the extent of his injuries?" he asked a better question now.

"Varied," Doctor Yoichi easily brought the information up in his mind, he was sure he would never completely forget it no matter how hard he tried. "The patient is in a coma, has internal bleeding in his skull that put pressure on the brain, several broken ribs, and blast lungs as his most important injuries."

Hiruzen stared at the man, shock and guilt racing across his expression. However, Yoichi had more.

"Beyond that, his eardrums are busted, it looks like someone took a cheese grater to random parts of his body, his wrists and ankles are raw from some kind of bindings, welts cover the majority of his back and legs, there are infected puncture wounds around his neck, and someone removed and cauterized his genitals."

"Cauterized?" Hiruzen exclaimed in shock. There was no way he could see through the blanket that now covered Naruto so he tried to jump up to see for himself before Yoichi stopped him.

"Someone removed and then cauterised the child's genitalia," Yoichi explained, pushing the Hokage back down by his shoulder. "It had to have happened a day or two ago judging by the levels of infection found in the wound."

Hiruzen trembled as each injury registered with him. Neither of the men knew the extent of Naruto's healing ability. Naruto's body could heal any injury that stayed clean over time, with internal organs taking more time then say, a flap of skin around the ear. Cauterising the injury would have slowed down the healing to a crawl.

"How long until he awakens?" Hiruzen asked, dreading the thought of Naruto waking up in pain.

Yoichi shook his head. "Months, years, maybe minutes. I truly can't say for sure, but I honestly don't think he ever will. He might just be brain dead by now, we won't know until a Yamanaka takes a look."

Hiruzen felt tear sting his eyes as what truly happened sank in. People in his village had tortured and mutilated his successor's son for an entire week, resulting in a coma being the his only relief. He couldn't even let a Yamanaka at him to see what's wrong until he's cleared them personally.

It was unforgivable.

-{}-

Coming out of her mind, the girl that had once been Naruto started walking in the real world. She didn't have a destination, didn't have a goal, she just knew that she needed to move. Walking gave her at least the illusion that something was happening, that something was being accomplished.

It eased her mind.

She walked through the trees and over the undergrowth for over ten minutes before coming out into an unnatural clearing. The trees just ended in a perfect line along the line of some kind of invisible boundary, in the center was a tall walled off building, a compound.

Memory came unbidden to the girl as she paused and looked at the building. This was near where the Orphanage Matron had dumped her, where no one else would go. She moved a bit closer, feeling drawn to the place ahead until she was right up against the wall.

Reaching out in front of her, she was surprised to find her hand stop an inch from the wall itself. There was a low amount of vibrating tickling her palm, and a line a Kajin seemed to hover in the air above her head.

Frowning she flashed back to one of the men earlier saying that seals required blood before forcibly taking Naruto's. A little frightened by the thought, she pulled back from the building and backed up all the way to the forest edge.

She'd leave this place alone for now.

'I need a den,' the child decided, the first thing Kaa-sama had said to find was a den and food. She wasn't hungry now, so a den was higher on the priorities list. Kaa-sama had said there wasn't food inside.

That struck her as odd the more she thought about it. She hadn't eaten anything since last night, or anything that wasn't rotten, pissed on, animal food or some combination of the last two, since she took over Naruto's care, but she wasn't hungry in the least.

Deciding to think about it more later, she turned and dived back into the trees.

* * *

September 26th 56 VE

10:46 pm

Hiruzen had called every Jonin to his office. The room was absolutely packed with bodies as the men and women that made up the bulk of Konohagakure's 'adult' forces waited silently for their leader's orders.

The command to come had gone out less than five minutes ago and had everyone arriving as fast as they could, the threat of being marked as a missing nin and a traitor had accompanied the command after all. Add in the burst of Kyuubi chakra they all felt only hours ago led to a nervous crowd piling in through the doors and windows.

An oppressive atmosphere was what they had arrived to. The glare and burst of Killer Intent that had shot from the Hokage every time someone had entered stopped most of them cold for a moment, sending shivers down everyone's spines as the ones behind them tried to hurry in.

Now, they waited for the old man to speak. Five minutes past the deadline the Hokage had place, Hiruzen finally broke the silence.

"This village has done something unforgivable."

All eyes not already focused on the imposing elder snapped to attention.

"Last week, the son of the fourth Hokage was taken by Jonin of this village and tortured. He is now in a coma with no sign of ever waking up."

The news drew shocked murmurs from those assembled. The thought that anyone with the same level of skill and experience as them, most of which had actually known the fourth Hokage as a person, would do that was abhorrent shocked them. The shock rivaled even that of finding out the Hokage had a son.

"Minato had a son?" Asked one of the Jonin while the group processed the news.

"Minato wasn't a monster," Hiruzen answered roundaboutly, "He wouldn't ask anyone to give up a child to become the next Jinchuriki unless he was willing to do the same."

Another wave of shock pulsed through the crowd as the import of what that meant occurred to them.

"The night the Kyuubi escaped was also the night that Minato's secret wife Kushina Uzumaki gave birth," Hiruzen bulldozed on, slowly laid out what really happened that night, the masked man attack, and the sealing the Kyuubi while keeping quiet about Mariko Namikaze and masked man's sharingan for now.

"I thought that this village wouldn't harm Minato's son," Hiruzen said letting his disappointment show, "I was wrong."

"Hokage-sama, if Naruto was the son of Minato, then why didn't everyone know?" asked a younger Jonin.

"For safety," Hiruzen rehashed this point, "So many people outside of the village wanted Minatio dead that his son would have been under constant attack from infiltrators. We didn't want to add more pressure to the child."

"Was he really that much of a risk?" asked the same Jonin, "If the knowledge of his parents alone was dangerous for him to have then why wasn't he put somewhere secure and out of harm's way?"

"Naruto was not an explosive tag," Hiruzen snapped angrily, "He was a child who should have had the same opportunities to have a childhood as anyone else!" Pausing for a second, Hiruzen sighed.

"We have gotten off topic, the reason I have called you all here is to declassify Naruto's heritage as an S-rank secret and so that anyone who knows anything about what happened to him can come forwards with what they know."

Uneasy shuffling through the ranks was his only answer.

"I know that a large part of you didn't do anything, in fact I'm sure a lot of you deliberately looked away from the child and avoided him, but what I'm ordering you to do is bring up anything you might have overheard in connection to a plan to tamper with Naruto's seal. Anything that might help us discover who hurt Minato's child."

After a moment, one Jonin stepped forwards. "I am a friend of Chunin Kiko Omitsu," he stated, "I overhead her discussing 'fox hunting' with a couple of civilians over a week ago, it might have some bearing on this discussion."

* * *

? 56-7? VE

? am

Dawn came far too early in the child's opinion. Her 'Den' was little more than a small hole she dug into the side of a hill near a tree. Her hands had felt like they were falling off before she was done digging and stuffing the hole with leaves, but it by the time she was done she had a hole deep enough for her to survive the night in.

She even insulated with her tails making a nest of fur at the bottom, so it wasn't that bad.

She would need to dig it deeper and stuff it with warm things if she decided to live there permanently, but so far it wasn't that bad.

It wasn't that bad. She was fine.

If she kept telling herself that then maybe it would be true.

Moving on, the girl decided that she needed a name. Calling herself 'me,' and 'girl' in her own head wasn't very healthy. Going down the hill, she found herself by a slow moving stream. She knelt by the water, looking at herself.

She hated herself, she couldn't get over the similarities, real or imagined, between herself and Naruto. The slim lines on her face where Naruto's whiskers had been, the skin tone, she was sure her voice was the same as well. The simularities she was convinced existed were too many for her to bear. Naruto was dead!

'If anyone sees me they'll know I used to be him,' she growled, the fog in her mind thinning, clearing away, as a small burst of Chakra stirred up a breeze. one hand reached up pulled at the tattered blond locks while the other gripped her cheek, digging her nails into her own fleash as if to rip them and all similarities to naruto's face away.

She hated this face, this hair, SHE **HATED** THIS FACE! Everything about it sickened her. IT'S **SAD** **WEAK** EYES HAD NO PLACE ON **HER FACE!**

Squeezing her eyes closed, the girl let out a howl of pure rage as she ripped out a fist full of hair and threw it before reaching up to grab another and pull again. Her cheek started to blead as her ragged nails dug into it, tring to rip the marks off as well as her hair.

A vortex of air whipped at the plants around the child as her red hot loathing threw Chakra around. The reflection wavered a bit as the small huricane threw leaves into the water, causing her face to blur for a moment before solidifying.

Opening her eyes, the girl glared at her clenched fist.

A gasp left her as she saw the purple near black strands between her fingers. Eyes darting to the water she stared at the reflection that looked back up at her.

Her new face was still thin face with pronounced cheek bones, and red slitted eyes. However, her skin was lighter, in between sand and warm ivory, and her hair. Her hair before had been yellow-blond and patchy from where the woman had pulled Naruto around by it. Her hair now was a dark purple, nearly black. It was long and had slight waves in it.

letting go with her other hand, she found the marks that had publicised her old identity gone as well. The small holes her nails had left vanished a second later and the blood they drew seemed to dissipate after a moment as well. Shock slowly left her reflection as the girl who cast it came to the realization that it was real.

Looking down she smirked at the reflection in the water. 'This is me,' she thought gleefully. Her mind was foggy no longer, this person wasn't Naruto, it wasn't even the drifting child that had cried like a baby for her Kaa-sama yesterday. This person was her grounding anchor that she could grow around.

"This is me, and I have a name," she declared pointing at the water.

"My name is… Kagami Ai."

* * *

 **Okay, SORRY! I got caught up in a lot of stuff, far to many to name at once without sounding like I'm a whining brat.**

 **Hopefully about a 50% increase in length will smooth things a bit?**

 **Hey, I've recived requests for Kagami to leave the Village Hidden in the Leaves, since this story is so 'slow burn' I feel alright asking you readers.**

 **Do you want her to leave the village and join up with another?**

 **Your input can change my story.**

 **Lastly: what do you think about the time stamps? I've added them to the entire story hoping they can make things a little smoother for you but if they don't work please let me know.**

 **REVIEWS!**

 **tonyalexander13: There are no pairing decided now, but I'm not sure I'll go for a Kagami/Sasuke.**

 **Edo123456: How strong Kagami is depends on what she learns and how much effort she puts in.**

 **amerdism: If Mariko had the Kyuubi she'd have the same issues as canon Naruto. Fuinjutsu is on the list of powers Kagami is going to learn.**

 **PinkiePieParty122894: No guarantees since that would reveal herself to them.**

 **Nariem: You read my mind.**


	7. A future is decided

**I bet no one thought I would update again this year 😜**

 **Then again, looking at my record that would be an understandable thought 😒.**

 **This is an AU and will contain: Fem Kyuubi Naruto, Abuse-torture, and sloooow updates.**

 **Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto**

* * *

-{}- is a POV shift.

line is scene shift.

 **"JUTSU NO NAME"** is a jutsu.

 **"Foolish monkeys,"** is Bijuu or powerful people speaking.

'thoughts' are thoughts.

Underline is Time Stamp

* * *

September 28th 56 VE

8:46 am

The paper seemed to taunt Hiruzen as it lay on desk, daring him to desecrate it with his damning words.

Taking a breath, the old man started writing.

 _Dear Kushina-chan_ \- He crumpled the paper and threw it at the corner. That wasn't the right way to start this kind of letter.

 _Jounin Uzumaki Kushina-san. I regret to inform you that_ \- This one also joined the growing pile as well. She was on a deep cover mission and assumed dead, so he couldn't start like that, not to mention that it was too formal for the red head. Maybe he should address the letter to Minato first.

F _ourth Hokage Minato-sama._

 _Please sit down and make sure Kushina isn't reading over your shoulder_ \- At least this way he might not die right away. _-I have something important to tell you. A member_ \- No, he removed the paper the same way and began anew. _- A group inside the village has done something horrible. Two days ago it was discovered that Naruto had been taken prisoner by a Jonin Shinobi. We immediately found and rescued him but it is feared that we were too late. He is currently in the hospital in a coma. The ones responsible are in Torture and Interrogation and his associates have either died or are being rounded up now._

 _The traitor was Masaru the Jonin Commander, He used his position to manipulate the guards and village schedules to take Naruto. He was discovered when I personally visited Naruto's home and found it empty. Soon afterwards there was an explosion of Kyuubi Chakra somewhere in the village. In our investigation of the Chakra blast, we found one of the storage buildings had been partially demolished. Inside, we apprehended Masaru and another Jonin along with the body of another in what was thought to be some kind of examination room._

 _In some of the rubble we found notes, book, and even Restricted Clan Property on sealing. We fear that Masaru was trying to tamper with Naruto's seal for unknown reasons. I have already recalled Jiraiya to study his seal, however, I am dedicating the majority of the barrier team to watching Naruto until he arrives. I urge you to stay away for now but I'm asking you to send me one of your **Hiraishin Kunai** in case the worst happens._

 _This obviously changes some of our plans going forwards. Please contact me as soon as you are able. I want to know what you think of the situation._

 _Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage_

 _Sep 28, 56._

That would work for Minato, but Kushina would require more details. He needed to go out and find just what happened before he could write a letter to her.

First he needed to find out who was involved, then he could figure out just what was done, which would lead him to who was at fault apart from himself for letting things go so wrong.

Knock Knock.

And just like that, the first step of his investigation arrived.

After shifting his paperwork around to bring the evidence he had on hand, Hiruzen called out, "Come in."

The door opened and the dull blond ponytailed head of the Yamanaka clan entered. "You wanted me, Hokage-sama?" Inoichi stated professionally. He was on friendly terms with the Hokage but he had a feeling that this meeting wouldn't be between friends but leaders.

"I did. How goes the interrogation?" Hiruzen stated before lifting up a damaged scroll.

Inoichi suppressed a yawn as he organized what had been discovered in the jounin minds. He had only gotten three hours sleep since the two survivors of the explosion had been brought to him. Not wasting any time, he had spent hours breaking down the protections around their minds to find everything they knew.

"The woman found in the rubble is most definitely disturbed, her mind has a level of fixation on Naruto Uzumaki that can only be described as perverse or destructive. She doesn't know much about what caused the explosion but she apparently was the one to guard him while other two, mainly Masaru, worked on whatever it was that destroyed the building," Inoichi curtly reported what had been found so far.

"We have yet to get into Masaru's mind as he was not only trained to resist mental invasion but has also suffered some brain damaged from the explosion and going in now would require the utmost skill to return safely." Inoichi didn't need to mention the vivid torture of Naruto found in the woman's mind, the Hokage had seen the doctor's report so he knew.

"I have some evidence that I need your help as the head of the Yamanaka clan to verify and look over," Hiruzen wiggled the scroll in his hands to draw attention to it.

Inoichi narrowed his eyes as he took the scroll in his hand. It was damaged, old, and covered in a dark liquid that had dried on it, but the identification seal was clear as day. Receiving and opening the scroll, he quickly perused it. "This is a scroll from my clan containing one of our lesser utilized Jutsu. It is a crime for anyone outside of the clan to have this," he identified before coming to a realization, "This was found at the site of the explosion, wasn't it."

"Indeed," Hiruzen answered, "I need to know who got this to Masaru, who in your clan is responsible for that."

"I will have that information to you in a day," Inoichi promised. Naruto was just over two weeks younger than his daughter Ino, he could understand what the Hokage must have felt seeing the child lying in that hospital bed.

"Before you do that," Hiruzen interrupted the clan head as he started to stand, "I have something more important that I need you to do first."

"Something more important than figuring out who gave clan secrets to child rapists?" Inoichi asked in anger.

"Yes," Hiruzen answered bitterly, "I need you to look into Naruto's mind."

Surprise flashed across Inoichi's face. "Looking into a Jinchuriki's mind is dangerous," he pointed out. It was an unwritten law of his clan that they don't go into the minds of those who contain Biju. 'Mental health' could sometimes have an all too physical aspect to it regarding his clan.

"I know," Hiruzen said, "We've had our seal specialists take a look at the seal and we're calling in Jiraiya for a deeper look, but we can't find anything that should be containing the Nine Tails inside of Naruto, the seal on him is damaged, some sections are just gone. As far as we can tell: the Nine Tails has nothing containing it within his body."

Inoichi gaped in shock. "We've lost the Nine Tails?" he asked. That had the potential to be world altering.

"Not entirely," Hiruzen said before subtlety guiding the other man's train of thought away from the Nine Tails, "I need you to find out just what the situation is. We can't figure out what state his mind is and if the Fox is still sealed in there in some manner from out here. We need to know if there's any immediate threat to the village before Jiraiya gets here."

Inoichi frowned as he considered. It was against his clan's unwritten laws to invade the mind of a Jinchuriki, and against the official laws to invade someone's mind without their permission to begin with, but there was an urgent need. "I don't know," he hedged, "I'm not at my best right now and it's against the law to go into a child's mind without parental permission." He had been busy working on the traitor's minds when the Hokage had called the meeting.

"I give you the go ahead to look into Naruto's mind as I was put in charge of his welfare by his parents," Hiruzen stated, wanting to get that fact as clear a possible.

The clan head looked at the Hokage in surprise. "Really? Who were Naruto's parents?" Something about the timing of things around Naruto had bugged him, like where a child the perfect age for the sealing had come from, and where they had gotten permission to use him as a Jinchuuriki on short notice.

"Minato and Kushina," Hiruzen answered truthfully as there was no longer an S rank secret around this.

Inoichi's eye widened as he saw the two in his mind's' eye. Why didn't he notice it before? Naruto was the perfect blend of coloring and stature between the two of them.

"I think I can do it," Inoichi finally answered after a moment, the weight of doing this for his departed friends and village overcoming his reasons against it. "I request a medical professional and my wife on standby in case things go wrong." That should keep him safe if something did happen.

"I'll have the ANBU pick up your wife and on the way to the Hospital," Hiruzen said, standing. They needed to understand what happened as soon as possible.

* * *

? 56-7? VE

? morning-ish, still dark?

In a hole in the ground there lived a fox-girl. It was a nasty, dirty, and slightly wet hole. Thankfully, there weren't any worms or oozy smells. Unfortunately, it wasn't a dry, bare, sandy hole with something in it to sit down on or to eat either.

Kinda sucked to be a newly born Kyuubi compared to a hobbit now that she thought about it. Not that she minded, no no no no, this fox girl could handle herself, Kagami decided.

Standing outside of her hole, Kagami -daughter of Kyuubi Kaa-sama- was rummaging through the bushes by the water, in search of some mud and leaves. She was going to try stealth mode before the sun was up.

Today she was going to get some clothes.

Her plan was to sneak into the clan compound next to her forest and steal something to wear, however, she needed something to cover her body from any watching eyes. Too bad she didn't know any 'build clothes no Jutsu', that would be useful. She should make one later.

Picking up a glob of muck, she glared at it and shivered before smearing it over her face. It sucked, but with the dark and the mud she should all but vanish. She didn't have to like it, though.

She should have done this a bit earlier but had overslept. Either way, she wasn't going to spend another day without some kind of body covering and this was the fastest way.

So she spread the cold mud over her body and got ready to sneak into the nearby inhabited compound.

Kagami paused as she finished coating herself to examine her tails. They were long and whippy and thankfully as dark as her wine colored hair with little white tips so they wouldn't stand out too much once she added some mud to the ends. She needed to find some way to hide them for when she left the village eventually.

Despite her plan for the day, she didn't know what to do long term. This village had killed Kaa-sama true, but she couldn't do anything about that now. She had nothing to live on and nowhere else to go. It had been galling to admit, but she knew she wouldn't survive for long outside the village as she was now.

If she left right now, walked out of the Senju forest and made her way to the gate she'd be picked up by Shinobi before she reached half way. The village had a thing about letting little nude girls walk around unattended. If she somehow managed to get out of the village, she'd be taken by bandits or eaten by something outside.

What she needed was some kind of base where she could think things over. A den that was set up with more than her hole in the ground. A safe place for her to hide in.

Then she could find ways to protect herself. Shinobi training was an option that Kaa-sama herself had encouraged, but would take years to perfect. She could join up with a caravan of traders, but that would require her to have a worthwhile skill to add to the group, also taking time to train in. The best job in this case for her to learn would be guard as it took care of her while traveling and allowed her to leave by claiming she was joining another band, but most of the traders here hired Shinobi as they were readily available. She'd need to be better than other Shinobi for that to work which meant Shinobi training.

She had put a lot of thought into this last night.

Shinobi training, Kagami groaned as her mind kept coming back to this idea. It would give her the most flexible escape options, even if she left the village in a caravan she would need to leave the caravan at a later date as well.

But Shinobi training was hard to get as it meant she needed to go to the academy, which meant an identity to register with the office, clothes to wear, and gear only accessible to shinobi and shinobi in training. Each of these requirements were good things to have for her escape but required time and connections to get. It was just so far out of her reach right now.

Slapping her cheeks, Kagami refocused herself. Instead of thinking about what she couldn't do, she needed to focus on what she could. Unfortunately, none of her plans would work without basic Shinobi training she decided. She needs to figure out how to get herself enrolled.

Step one had to be clothes she decided. No one would let her in as a naked child. 'Well, no one safe,' she added, good samaritans didn't exist in this village after all.

Step two... could be creating an identity. To register she'd need someone to register as. 'And money,' she added as she thought about it. She might be able to cut corners on some of the gear but tuition required cold hard Ryo.

Step three, get money.

Racking her brains, Kagami couldn't think of anything else she could do to help her plan right now. She had enough on her plate. The rest she could figure out later.

Once she was satisfied with her camouflage, the young girl walked away from the stream in the direction of the road.

She turned towards the nearest building after leaving the clan forest behind. The next clan complex over was guarded by high walls that kept the forest out.

Pressing herself through the bushes right at the line in-between the two boundaries, Kagami slid between the boundaries, hugging the wall until she spotted a strong branch sticking out over her head but not quite at the top of the wall.

She walked until she was almost under the branch to examine it. About as thick as both her legs, she decided that it would hold her weight and she could reach the top of the wall from there.

Smiling, Kagami readied to jump. It was higher then she had ever jumped before so she'd have to give it her strongest leap. Once she had that limb in sight the small kyuubi pounced.

'What the!?' the mud smeared girl thought as she sailed past the branch, and over the height of the wall.

As she reached the pinnacle of her jump, the girl was granted a view of the grounds beyond the wall. A small, peaceful green area with manicured grass, a clear koi fish pond, and a wraparound patio with a basket of something that had been left out for some reason.

Then gravity reasserted itself and she fell.

"Ouf," Kagami gasped as she landed butt first on the branch she had been aiming for. The branch shifted dangerously under her but Kagami didn't notice. 'I wasn't nearly this agile as naruto, did whatever they did alter my abilities as well as my appearance?' Reluctantly she added 'test myself' myself to her list of things to do today.

Kagami refocused on her task after standing up and rubbing her sore butt for a moment. The top of the wall was within reach and she quietly bounced a bit to pull herself over the edge.

As she sailed over the wall without her feet touching the top, Kagami belatedly realized that she didn't know how to land.

'Oh fuck' she thought as she fell, stiffening her legs as she tried to think of the best way to land on her feet.

This however apparently wasn't the best way to land, especially on a flag stone. Something in her knee went "Pop" as she impacted the ground.

"Hi-" Kagami cut her hiss of pain short as to not attract attention to where she lay. Instead she sucked in large gulps of air as fast as she could until she started feeling light headed. The pain was intense and lanced up her left thigh from her knee. The fact that her leg was now pointing a little to her left frightened her.

She reached down to examine the leg herself, trying to see how badly she had screwed up. 'You should have waited!' she internally berated herself as her leg below the knee flopped around independent of the rest of her.

Setting it down gently as the pressure from her fingers hurt, Kagami started screaming inside her skull. 'I should have waited another day to watch this place! Another day to find a good entrance point! Another day to realize that your body has some kind of super jump! Baka Baka Baka!'

As her self-recriminations continued, her pain slowly faded. Kagami blinked in confusion when she noticed the pain vanishing. The leg was still laying at an odd angle but the angle was less then it had been before.

The leg moved on its own until it was in line with the rest of her body and another "Pop" signified that it was back in place.

Lifting the limb in silent awe, Kagami gasped as if moved with only a little bit of pain to show that it had ever been broken in the first place.

Shifting into her hands and knees, Kagami carefully pushed herself to her feet. 'I am so cool,' She thought proudly as the pain ended leaving tenderness behind.

Turning back towards her target, she walked over to the basket. Marveling the entire way as even the tenderness faded away to nothing before she reached the edge of the patio.

Rifling through the basket, Kagami came up with a small black taijutsu gi and pants, a fluffy blanket, and a stinky mesh undershirt and panties.

Kagami wrinkled her nose as she smelt the stale sweat on it. Smelled like someone had fallen asleep on their bed in their taijutsu gi before putting it out to deal with later. She was thankful to whomever that was.

Picking up the entire basket, she gave a short bow of thanks to the house and the ones who didn't know they were donating, before backing away. At the wall she considered how to get over with her arms full for a moment before just backing up and leaping.

As she predicted she successfully made it to the top! and then continued over the edge and landed belly first on the limb from earlier with a loud cough of pain as all the air in her lungs was squished out.

She'd practice jumping after she rinsed her new outfit.

* * *

September 28th 56 VE

9:30 am

Inoichi stood at the head of the hospital bed. His wife and the attending doctor were standing to his left while the Hokage stood on the other side, outside were four others from the barrier team all ready to intervene if things went south.

Naruto himself was strapped to the bed with his eyes closed while a frightening number of tubes attached to his wrist, chest, upper arm, and throat, kept him alive.

Taking in a bracing breath, Inoichi exhaled and reached for the child's head.

-{}-

When he opened his eyes again, Inoichi stood in a void. The world around him was a blank grey color and had an oppressive atmosphere about it.

There was no indication of anything being present, no movement of thoughts like a healthy mind, no cage or container for the nine tails either.

Forcing his mental avatar through the boy's mind, he shuddered as he realized that the oppressive atmosphere he felt was the literal sludge of decay in this child's mind. This place was atrophying around him as he looked for the center.

The advanced Yamanaka clan jutsu that he was using helped him by displaying the mind he was invading as a brain surrounded by walls that were either mental defenses or just strong emotions and instincts. Giving visual representation to the complex inner workings of the mind.

The center of a healthy mind would be represented by a brain in the middle of all the walls. It held all the most important and recent memories to be processed and made decisions based on what the rest of the mind inputted.

It took a shocking amount of time for the expert mind walker to find the child's center, he actually passed it twice before coming back to it.

The small, shriveled, and unguarded nature of the center was distributing as it indicated either a baby like mind or something too damaged to evolve past a toddler's level.

With a heavy heart, Inoichi reached out and cradled the boy's center, caressing it like a newborn babe before channeling a little chakra into it.

Instantly he knew where he was in Naruto's mind and the layout of the child's unique mindscape. He should also be getting memories from the boy but nothing was coming.

A sigh was pulled out of him as he gently lowered the center back to where he found it. There was no Kyuubi in here, and there were no memories to be found.

It was official, Naruto Uzumaki (or was it Namikaze?) was brain dead.

-{}-

Pulling himself back to his body, Inoichi sighed and let go of the child's head.

Hiruzen looked to the clan head expectantly. He was dreading what the man might say but still needed to know.

"The Kyuubi no Kitsune is not inside of Naruto. The Fox has either escaped or was destroyed and is reforming," Inoichi reported, "and I have to declare Naruto Uzumaki to be officially brain dead."

Hiruzen felt the kunai in his heart twist at Inoichi's solemn declaration. The information that the nine tails was missing was worrisome as he didn't know what happened now. The fox chakra might return to Mariko or the part inside of Naruto might reform in his village in nine years time.

"Thank you for your help Yamanaka-dono," Hiruzen intoned in an official tone. "If you could leave us, I need to discuss the care of Naruto's body with Doctor Yoichi in private. Please return to Hokage building this evening at 1900 hours for a council meeting, until then please rest."

Nodding in understanding, Inoichi and his wife left the old Hokage and Doctor Yoichi alone.

As soon as he dismissed the Yamanaka clan members, Hiruzen turned his attention to the body. The sound of the heart monitor now seemed to be mocking him as it recorded the boy's artificial functions.

"We already suspected that he was brain dead," Doctor Yoichi commented with a grim look.

Hiruzen signed as he stepped back from the bed. Losing someone under his command was hard, the death of a child in the village was even worse. Feeling both was enough to break something inside him.

"Please take care of Naruto's body," Hiruzen asked to the surprise of the Doctor. "Keep him, his body, alive if you would. I'll pay for the hospital to keep the LVAD running. I need to write a letter before we can unplug him."

Hiruzen then turned and left the room without waiting for a response. He had a letter to write.

* * *

? 56-7? VE

? morning-ish

Kagami stepped back and admired 'her' new Taijutsu gi as it hung to dry. When she had returned, the first thing she had done was to soak and rub it in the stream until the scent left. Now no one should be able to smell the old owner on it.

As the gi dried, she focused on herself. Running around the hillside showed that she was fast, she was sure that Genin twice her age were as fast as she was now but would need to test that once she got into the academy.

Jumping was also a very different experience now. She now could leap from tree to tree like a Chunin if the stories Kaa-sama had told her were correct. Now she understood why her vixen mommy had made her do all those exercises and stand stills after getting out of the orphanage. She felt so free when she managed to all but fly, leaping from tree to tree around the hill without touching the ground.

Stopping for breath after only two laps around the hill she tried looking, listening and sniffing the world around her. She hadn't noticed anything about her sight but her nose was definitely stronger. If she ran a bit of Chakra she could pick up the scent of habitation from the nearby village.

There was another smell, dust and mildew, coming from the next clearing over. She knew that the Senju compound was over there and it bothered her.

A moment later she blinked as she realized that she had molded chakra to enhance her ability to smell. Stopping her internal manipulation she found that the smell of the village down the road had vanished and so had the smell of dust, but if she strained her nose normally she could still pick up the smell of mildew.

Giggling in happiness at her awesomeness, she allowed herself to flop over into the wild grass.

Her life was looking so much better now that she was alone.

* * *

September 28th 56 VE

10:24 am

The second letter to the hidden couple was somehow easier to write now.

 _Kushina-chan._

 _I have failed you. When you left this village you entrusted me with the protection of your precious treasure and I failed to safeguard him._

 _Two days ago there was an explosion of chakra from a warehouse and investigators discovered that a lab to study the seal used on Naruto had been set up within. Naruto was also found inside of the wreckage._

 _I write this letter after the head of the Yamanaka clan has formally announced that he is truly brain dead from the experience._

 _I cannot express how much sorrow I feel over this failure. Those in the immediate area were arrested and are the personal guests of the head of the T &I division. They are spilling all they know and are giving up their fellow conspirators._

 _I would like the final decision as to what happens to them to be your decision, yours and Minato's. I am granting you their lives under Clans Law. I hope you can be given some measure of satisfaction with this decision._

 _Until I hear back, I will keep them in the solitary confinement section of the T &I division._

 _Please respond as soon as possible._

 _Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage_

 _Sep 28, 56._

It wasn't a happy letter by any means, but he felt it conveyed what he wanted it to.

Sighing, the Hokage sat back and looked over his letters again. Once he was sure the contents of both pleased him, he folded both letters and sealed them into an order going out to the same outpost he had received their letters from.

"ANBU," he called out to his 'empty' office, "I want the latest report from outpost 56 brought to me as soon as it arrives." A quiet conformation reached his ears before he stood and moved out of his office.

"Please bring the latest report from the T&I division immediately to my office when it arrives in half an hour," he told his secretary as he started walking.

Outside he could clear his head, smoke his pipe and imagine what it would have been like to have Naruto actually in the academy.

He was so much like his mother that there was no way he wouldn't have been a prankster. Imagining the things he might have gotten up to brought a fond smile to the old man, helping him forget the issues he had for a time.

* * *

Inoichi Yamanaka quietly ran his hands through his little princesses hair. He had come home like the Hokage suggested but found that rest had completely escaped him.

Naruto was just too similar in his eyes to his daughter. Seeing that child wired up with so many various medical instruments had truly turned his stomach, let alone what condition his mind had been in.

He had hunted down his daughter at the Nara clan compound and interrupted her play with the Nara and Akimichi clan heirs to ask if he could sit with them. His daughter, Ino hadn't wanted to stop her game of tag to sit around on the walkway.

He chuckled a little, it had taken some coaxing but he had finally managed to get five minutes of the kid's time to relax. Shikakus' kid had flopped down on the porch and looked up at the cloudy autumn sky the second he had suggested a break.

His former teammates were standing down the way a bit waiting from him to center himself.

"Okay daddy, that's enough," Ino said in annoyance, wiggling impatiently out of his lap. She didn't mind helping her dad feel better about whatever was getting him down but she was so bored just sitting there.

"Fine fine," he agreed and let her get up and pull the Nara heir off the walkway with her.

"She's kind of demanding, isn't she?" Shikaku Nara said as he approached.

"Yes but she'll need to be," he said in return.

"So what happened?" Choza asked, sitting down next to his comrade. "The last time you needed to be around children was after the war."

"You've heard about Naruto Uzumaki, right?" Inoichi asked, looking at his stout friend.

"The Jinchuriki child? Bits here and there. Something happened to him, right?" Choza responded. "I just got back from a mission out of the village." He hadn't interacted with the boy, feeling a bit nervous about what could happen to his son Choji if they'd met.

"It turns out that his clan name could have been Namikaze," Shikaku answered, taking a seat on Inoichi's other side.

"And I just got back from declaring him brain dead after some Jonin shinobi lead by Masaru himself tortured and possibly experimented on him," Inoichi finished.

"Kami-sama," Choza breathed in shock.

"Indeed," Inoichi responded. "Expect an emergency council meeting tonight at 7 to discuss this."

The three friends sat there a little while longer taking in the sight of their respective children before Choza added, "He was as old as our kids, wasn't he."

"A bit younger even, still would have been in the same year though." Shikaku answered. He needed more information before the meeting. Asuna had better have followed his recommendation and decided to get to know the boy. There was going to be an investigation of his own as soon as he got back to the clan compound.

For now, the three men sat there a while longer, thinking about their own children.

* * *

? 56-7? VE

? morning,

Kagami shifted her new clothes around, pulled them tight against her body, and stretched to let them slide wherever they might. With her gi dry, she had immediately pulled on the unfamiliar clothes and been greeted by the odd feeling of closeness around her privates. It was the first time she had worn panties. It didn't feel bad just a little odd but the mesh undershirt needed some getting used to.

Putting the new sensations out of her mind, she turned to admire herself in the stream. Then she realized that she had no way to hide her tails. Kagami racked her head as she tried to think of a solution.

There wasn't enough cloth to hide all nine and thinking ahead there was no way to keep them in check at the academy, a single sparring match would expose her. 'What had the Jutsu Kaa-sama mentioned, the disguising one?'

"No, Disguise?" she thought out loud. "No, Transformation! That's what it was." Putting her hands up, the fox girl started trying emulating her mother's description of the hand signs. Kaa-sama hadn't been the best at describing hand signs as she hadn't used more than the two finger pressed together one. The tiger one or was it called rat?

"One's a fist with the other on top flat?" she muttered as she tried it out. "Then a fist to fist pointing… up?" She hated not knowing, she should've known this it was in the basics book. "Followed by ram." She remembered the shape but not what it was called.

As soon as she made the ram, or rat, or whatever it was called, something was different. Her body felt warm and energized, like there was lightning running under her skin. The other signs hadn't felt like this. She was bouncy and kinda giddy.

"Wow," she gasped, "Is this what all Shinobi feel like when they use chakra?" No wonder old people like the Hokage could still be Shinobi, this was incredible. "Now if I can hide the tails-" POOF.

"Eh?" Kagami's eyes widened. There was a sudden shift in her balance and she stumbled, nearly falling on her face. Peeking over her shoulder, she found her tails gone. "How did I...?" she asked herself. Patting herself down, she found her tails gone, but her ears were still there.

"It's a start," she muttered, "Was was that?" If it had worked for her tails, then she should have concentrated it on hiding her ears as well. Taking a second to try again, she focused on no ears, nothing happened. "Hide ears?" she tried verbalizing her desire. Her fingers still found soft furry appendages in her hair. Maybe she could hide them in her hair for now.

Going over to her stream, she gave her reflection a slow turn, marveling over how normal she looked. She was a bit thin and had ears, but apart from that she looked like an average six year old girl. 'Am I… Cute?' part of her wondered. She was formidable in her own mind but had no idea what others would think. 'I can be cute and tough,' she decided, taking in her form and striking a 'bold' pose.

Feet firmly planted shoulder width apart, both hands on hips, chest puffed out and eyes searching the forest canopy before dropping back to the stream to check herself out. Her mouth quirked into a grin that showed off her slightly pointed front teeth. 'I can,' she giggled internally before narrowing her gaze.

Her hair was black and eyes were red, it reminded her of the Uchiha in Kaa-sama's stories. "I look like one of them," she muttered dropping the pose, half annoyed and half intrigued by the idea. Kaa-sama had grudgingly admitted that they were often considered handsome and beautiful by the humans so maybe she fit her newfound description? The Uchiha clan were also rather well known and valued in the village for their fighting ability.

Despite their famous fire affinity, the Uchiha clan were often 'cold' to people outside their clan so the villagers often left them alone unless they were actively fangirling on them. Hopefully the villagers would think she was part of their clan and leave her alone because of it.

The very thought of going into the village frightened her more than anything else, she didn't want anyone to interact with her.

After flattening her ears, she reached up and tried brushing her hair over them. There wasn't much she could do to hide them right now as she didn't have anything to cover them with. Kneeling down by the stream, she wetted everything to get it to stick.

Not happy but satisfied for the moment, Kagami stood and looked towards where the village stood. Time for her first foray into the village to test if her disguise would hold. Hopefully she'd find out what date it was as well.

* * *

September 28th 56 VE

3:24 pm

"I'm telling you, it's true," a brown haired woman said to her friends as they moved through the market. She was talking animatedly to her disbelieving companions while they went through the piles of clothes. "The Hokage confirmed it to all the Jonin, including my sister, yesterday. The Kyuubi brat was the child of Minato himself."

The group of maybe seven women, it was hard to tell as some left and others joined as they pleased, meandered around the small market right in between the clan grounds and the rest of the village where goods of a particular quality were sold.

The large wooden stalls were set up in tight rows that funneled the shoppers past the open shops while letting those who were interested pick through the wares.

"No matter how many times you say it, it won't be true," a blonde woman in the group stated, picking up a white silk Obi before rejecting it. "There is no way he was the Hokage's son. Wouldn't Lord Third have personally raised him if he was? Why wouldn't he take a personal interest in him unless he wanted to distance himself? "

"He couldn't get close because of politics," brown haired woman argued back, gesturing like she had scored a decisive point.

"He raised two children as Hokage and loved the Fourth like a son," Blonde argued. "He would have damned the consequences and raised the brat if there had been any relation. He's the Hokage, he can do things like that."

"There's also physical appearance to take in," a new woman broke in. "His name was Naruto, not brat, and he looked like a young Minato if you removed the whiskers."

The Blonde scoffed, "You think every guy with blond hair either looks like your husband or Minato, Yamanaka."

Usui Yamanaka, wife of Inoichi, raised an immaculate eyebrow. "I do not," she said with deliberate care, "I met Minato several times while he was in office and saw Naruto twice recently. I can assure you that they are father and son. They had the same nose and shade of blond."

As the Yamanaka Clan Monarch, her word carried a lot of weight and most of the other women were content to let the three talk it out while they shopped.

"And I still think you're delusional," the Blonde said, absently wagging a finger at the Monarch. "I saw the Kyuubi brat a couple of days after that and can tell you, it was nothing but an animal in human skin."

Usui frowned as something about what she was saying didn't make sense. "What do you mean?" she asked for more information. "I saw him when he was surrounded by the crowds before and again just recently. Neither times he looked like an animal but a lost child."

"I visited him with my husband," the Blonde said, focusing on her figure as she checked the fit of a haori. It didn't let enough of her boobs show so she rejected it.

"The stupid thing tried to bite me and peed on the floor like some kind of animal. Minato was a smart man, I met him several times after meetings with my husband you know." The only good thing that came out of her time being a secretary in the hospital was the hours she spent scoping out potential husbands before marrying the rich old doctor. "He was nothing like that animal, there can't be a connection."

"You sound like you knew Naruto well, how recent was the last time you saw him?" Usui asked calmly, her suspicion hidden.

"A couple days ago, three I think," the Blonde woman answered, straightening her new Haori. "Definitely this one," she mused, the green flying cranes on the back matched with her kimono.

"I see," Usui said. 'I suddenly feel the need to stop by the Hokage's office on the way home.'

"I don't see why the two of you can't get along, or you need to egg them on Tano," one of the women who had been silent till then spoke up. "We're sorry he's dead, but there's nothing that can be done about that now. Who cares about who the boy's parents were since they're apparently dead as well? It just makes us sad thinking about it."

The other women in their group all nodded in agreement, it was sad that a boy had been killed but what was there to do about it now? Nothing, that's what.

They had deliberately not gotten to know the boy because of what he carried, but now he was all everyone was talking about. They had acted like there was a bubble of hazardous air around him and now they didn't know enough to say yay or nay to the rumors, so they focused on something else.

"I was just talking about how shocking it was to find out Minato had left a son," Tano, the woman whose sister was a Jonin, objected. "Everyone knew he was off the market, but no one could figure out who with. I would have been convinced he was gay if he hadn't been seen talking about a woman he dated."

"That's it?" Usui asked incredulously. "People in this village murdered a child in cold blood and what you all are focusing on the fathers preferences?"

"Kinda," they responded, drawing an irate expression from Usui. Naruto had been dangerous, like all Jinchuriki were, but they hadn't personally done anything to hurt him. They honestly didn't know what Usui wanted from them. He had been an innocent child but also an unstable explosive seal so they kept their distance until someone showed them what to do next.

The answer to their dilemma had come when the Hokage had made his law about no talking about the Fox. They could just avoid him. It solved everything. Then he had to go and die and leave them feeling sorry but apathetic about the mess.

Unnoticed by the group, a small girl paused in the motion of slipping around the arguing women, her face paling in terror.

-{}-

Kagami kept an eye on the adults as she snooped around the entrance to the village proper. So far no one had noticed her beyond occasional glances.

It had been easy to force herself down the road from the forest she was inhabiting as no one was there to share it with, or to watch her. She'd spent the entire way down the road trying to psych herself up.

Now she found herself standing, petrified, in the center of the gravel path having arrived at the border between the clan district and the rest of the village. She wasn't afraid of going forwards, she tried to rationalize her petrification, Her wet hair had dried in the cold air by this point, leaving her shivering and even more anxious than before.

'Move Kagami. You've never been here before. This is a fresh start! You're too cool to be scared!' she tried to cajole herself by rubbing her head, which messed up her hair and nearly revealed her left ear. Distracting herself by focusing on concealing her ear with her hair again, Kagami stubbornly forced herself to start moving forwards.

Thankfully her hair was once more a thick mess, hiding her flattened ears by the time she came across her first couple.

The man and woman walking the other way paused and for a moment their auras changed from pink to white as they noticed her, but they didn't stop and it changed back a moment later.

Holding her nerves in, Kagami gave up on using just her hair as a disguise. 'I'm getting a hat first before anything else,' she thought.

Moving over to an empty side street, she followed it until she found a busy market set up at the intersection between the side street she was on and a main road. People moved through this open area in groups that filled the open spaces between stalls almost to the brim and moved like small herds.

Standing in the side street, Kagami nervously tried to spot what she was looking for before having to venture into the crowds of civilians. Her fear of them fighting with the knowledge that they wouldn't recognize her anyway. The fact that she'd need to steal the hat didn't even phase her, but the crowds were a different matter.

Finally she spotted some handmade hats and hair ribbons at the end of a table over by a group of seven women.

Kagami started walking in the tables general direction, trying to project just how confident she was with just her stride. This was frustrated by there being just too many people for her to approach directly.

"-an't be possible."

"is too, the Hoka-"

Snippets of gossip passed over her head as she stalked past them, almost causing her hidden ears to twitch in their direction.

"-his father was lord Fourth. I can see that. Remember, the boy's hair and eyes?"

That snippet brought the girl up short and she twisted around, trying to see who had spoken to hear a little more. 'Are they talking about naruto?' she wondered. If they were then it would be interesting to hear what they thought about her father.

Then worry settled in her gut despite her continuous efforts to push it away. If they somehow learned about her connection to her father then would they find out about her relationship with kaa-sama? The fox they hate? This could make her time in the village harder, it could bring them down on her now!

"But who's the mother then? Namikaze-sama wasn't married as far as I heard."

So they hadn't figured out that Naruto was Kaa-samas' son. Kagami let out a relieved breath.

As she approached the table, she moved to keep a group of women between her and the stall owner.

Just as she reached the front, the woman closest to the front moved and she got a good look at the woman. Eyes widened as a memory rose with the bile in her throat.

* * *

? 56VE

?

'"Come on, Fox," The Woman ordered as she dragged Naruto by the spiked collar. "We have guests."

The boy had been awakened from the doze that had replaced true sleep by a hard kick before being dragged naked from his cage and into another room. In the room was a small group of maybe six high class looking people in traditional kimonos, each with a look of disgust on their faces as they observed him.

"Well foxy, aren't you going to go say hello?" The Woman asked sweetly before delivering another crushing kick to his backside.

Naruto hardly even reacted anymore to the pain as he stumbled forwards on hands and knees.

The first person he approached took one look at him before spitting. "Damn thing isn't even washed," he proclaimed before turning his nose away, "An unclean morgue slab smells fresher than it."

The next person who caught the child's attention was the blonde woman beside the man. He frowned and moved a bit closer. It was hard to tell after the world had gotten darker after The Woman had kicked him in the face that morning, but it looked like she had orange flowers on her kimono. Orange was good.

Without warning, The Woman kicked him again, her toe digging into his side and lifting him off the ground. Naruto squirmed in pain as something tore inside. "My apologies," The Woman said, bowing to the couple, "He was going to bite."

"Absolutely disgusting," the blonde woman agreed as she watched on.

Naruto just lay there as brown and red liquid started flowing from his crotch, spraying all over him as he tried to deal with the pain. The couple jerked back and left in a huff while The Woman threw a furious glare at the fox, promising another eternity with her spiked crotch stick for this.

"I'm sorry Jura-sama," the Woman apologized, bowing low as she stepped away from the mess to follow the couple out, "but as you can see, bathing this animal doesn't do much. It prefers its own stench."

Naruto whimpered as his returning eyesight burned these new people into his mind.

* * *

September 28th 56 VE

3:24 pm

Kagami trembled as the blond woman haggled with the store owner, every minuscule bit of confidence she had vanished like water in a volcano. Quickly, she grabbed the first thing she touched and spirited away.

Behind her, the stall owner only noticed the theft seconds after Kagami vanished and was left wondering who stole from him.

-{}-

Collapsing onto her knees by some bushes, Kagami stayed there for almost a full minute before leaning forwards and retching. Nothing but bile came out but she didn't care. She felt dirty. Soiled just by the memory that woman invoked in her.

She wanted to cry, to go back to the forest and scrub herself in the stream again before hiding in her cave for a week crying. She felt so vulnerable and filthy. She felt broken, worse than she had that morning while smeared in mud.

"Calm down calm down, calm down, calm, down," she muttered, deliberately slowing down her words with each repetition.

After a moment she started to breath a little easier. Taking in a breath, she looked at what she had stole.

In her hands were two pairs of hair ties, a thin red pair and a wide lacy blue pair.

"Kuso!" she exclaimed. All she had wanted was a stupid hat but no, she had to run into one of her tormentors and fucked up the grab.

Coming back to herself, Kagami paused for a moment before reaching up and running her fingers through her hair. She screwed up and all she could do was make the best of the situation.

She couldn't live like this she thought as she finger combed. Kaa-sama would be disappointed in her, frightened by a civilian. But, her stomach had turned into knots merely at that woman's glance and the result of untangling said knots was on the ground in front of her.

Once her hair was untangled, she reached up and gathered her hair into twin side ponytails. Focusing on a task distracted her from her upset. Adding her own ear to the mass, she carefully used the red hair tie to make the bunch look to be all of a piece while leaving a large and flabby bow on top of it all.

She felt more secure once she had both ears hidden in plain sight this way.

"Hey there, what are ya doing back here miss?"

The unexpected voice caused Kagami to jump as she tried to figure out where it came from. After a moment she finally spotted a familiar head sticking out from a bush behind her. "Kirito?" she asked out loud before she could stop herself.

The young Yamanaka frowned as the unfamiliar girl said his name. "Do I know you?" he asked confused.

"Ah, no," Kagami said quickly, standing up and bowing at the waist like Kaa-sama said humans did when meeting people from other clans, being extra polite wouldn't hurt here. "Nice to meet you, my name is Ai Kagami."

Kirito blinked at the rather deep bow and more formal tone he was receiving from the girl his age in a black gi. She was kinda odd but he answered back. "Hi, I am Yamanaka Kirito." She was kinda cute.

An awkward pause followed the greeting as the kids tried to figure out what to say next. Kagami held her bow to hide her embarrassment. 'Please don't notice my ears, please don't,' she begged in her head.

"What are you looking at Kirito?" a woman's voice asked from beyond the bushes breaking the tension.

"There's a girl back here, mom," Kirito said, looking over his shoulder. His mother looked over at the two of them from where she was watching.

"Hello miss Yamanaka," Kagami burst out. She was certain that the mothers from before had nothing directly to do with her suffering, they had just told their kids to stay away from Naruto. Good thing she wasn't Naruto.

Kirito's mother looked at the young girl in surprise. The child was small, wore clothes that were far from appropriate in the late summer/ early fall weather and didn't have shoes. "Hello little girl, I am Yayoi Yamanaka. What's your name?" she asked politely.

"I'm Ai Kagami," Kagami announced, pushing pride into her voice. "I was walking around here when Kirito met me."

"I see. Would you like to come play with Kirito and his friends?" Yayoi asked. Really she wanted to have the girl sit with her fellow mothers so they could warm her up.

"No thank you Yamanaka-san," Kagami said before coming up with a lie. "My mother is waiting at home. I'm supposed to go enroll at the shinobi academy and then go straight home."

"Oh," 'She's rather young to start isn't she?' "You must be a mature girl for her to let you do that all by yourself," Yayoi said, surprised.

"I'm so badass that Kaa-sama says I can!" Kagami declared rather childishly to the woman's surprise and disapproval.

"Language, little lady," Yayoi admonished sternly.

"Sorry, that's just what Kaa-sama says I am," Kagami said before letting a shy expression appeared on her face. "Sorry to ask, but do you know the date? I can't remember what day it is today and don't want to look stupid by asking at the desk."

"I see," Yayoi said slowly, if she ran into this child's mother there would be some words. Then she smiled before answering, "It's September 28th, 56 VE."

"Thank you, I should be going. Thank you for information," Kagami said, repeating herself and injecting as much excitement as she could into her voice before moving down the path giving off the appearance of an excited little girl. "See you later Kirito, Yamanaka-san."

"Goodbye Kagami-chan," Yayoi called out while Kirito watched. "So," his mother turned her attention to him a heartbeat after Kagami vanished from sight, "You know her?"

"No- this was the first time I've met her," Kirito quickly denied, his face coloring a bit.

"Oh? Really? Your face says something else~"

"It does not!" Kirito was quickly turning a deeper red. Girls were so weird, why would he hang out with any of them?

His mother had no mercy on him.

-{}-

Kagami shivered at the close shave. Seeing one of the boys here and then calling him out by name when only Naruto knew him had been a mistake. She felt so stupid. Puffing out her cheeks, she indulged herself in a bit of rage for a moment, then let out a sigh.

"September 28th," she muttered. So Naruto had only been hurt by The Woman for about ten days. Ten days, it just didn't seem real to her. How could it have only been ten? She remembered going to sleep and being woken up at least a dozen times as Naruto. She was sure it had been a month at least.

She didn't really pay attention to the world around her as she walked towards the academy. She felt too unsettled by what should have been a quick visit, she hadn't even done the one thing she had set out to do.

'Just get to the academy, steal some records to copy and make my own.' Plan set, she continued down the road.

* * *

September 28th 56VE

6:45pm

"Hmm?" Nako, a young worker in the academy office looked up from a delightful orange book. She thought she'd heard the sliding door to the records storage open and close.

"Is anyone in there?" she called out to the door. Her station was a small desk near the door so that the more senior staff could drop off requests for documents or add things to storage. No one could just walked into the room without her knowledge. Deciding that she imagined it, she went back to her book.

-{}-

'So close,' Kagami thought as she listened at the door in case someone had seen her.

The room was old, on the fourth floor, and only had one window. In preparation for this mission she had borrowed, forever, a rope from one of the shop backrooms.

The basic plan was to find a folder about any random deceased young villager that she could take without drawing attention and slip out the window with the rope.

Rough, but it would work for now.

Moving down darkened rows of filing cabinets, she went about half way to avoid detection and started digging.

* * *

September 28th 56VE

7:02pm

In an office attached to the academy building several men and women gathered. The clan heads and industrial leaders of the village were sitting around a table with the Hokage and his advisers at the head.

"Thank you all for coming, " Hiruzen observed for politeness before moving on. "I called you all here to clear the air of the rumors floating around the village and inform you of recent events. To start, I want to open the floor to anyone who has heard some rumors around the village." He wanted them to start.

"Shouldn't we wait for the head of the Jounin?" the head physician asked looking around.

"No, Masaru is otherwise occupied," Hiruzen answered.

"I've got a rumor that I want an answer to," the leader of the textile guild started, "I'm sure it's the one that's been on your minds. How true is the story that says you named the Jinchuriki as the child of the fourth Hokage?"

The others around the table nodded as they leaned forward. Hiruzen's indirect words annoyed some of them and the civilians weren't willing to wait to get to the point.

"It is completely true," Hiruzen confirmed.

Those around the table started talking at once. A large portion started denying the possibility while others remained silent. Hiruzen let the council rant for a bit before quieting them.

"The Previous Jinchuuriki was Kushina Uzumaki," the third Hokage said for the benefit of those who didn't know, "She was Minato's wife. On the night the Kyuubi escaped, she had gone into labor. This weakened the seal and allowed an infiltrator to steal the Kyuubi and unleash it on the village."

"Then why didn't you tell us the whole truth that night?" Fugaku Uchiha asked. "Minato told us about Uzumaki-san being his wife, her weakening seal, his daughter being born and about the infiltrator, but why didn't Minato claim the boy as his as well?"

"The Kyuubi was broken into two parts when it was sealed," Hiruzen informed the council. "One half was placed inside of Naruto while the other was hidden away. The infiltrator was able to kill an entire ANBU team and get past a barrier the fourth hokage had set up all without alerting Minato who was inside."

This unsettled the council as such a feat was unheard of, Fugaku almost wished that the Infiltrator had been an Uchiha just for bragging rights.

"For this reason the utmost care and duplicity was used to handle the Fox. Minato couldn't claim Naruto as his or it would endanger him. Naruto needed to be known as the Jinchuriki so that we could relieve the fear the village had after that night, but the second part of the Fox was kept separate so that it wouldn't fall into the infiltrator's hands in case he infiltrated us again."

"On top of that, entire villages would have been after Naruto if it was known that he and Minato were related. We didn't want to add more stress on his already burdened shoulders."

"So you kept everyone in the dark," Shikaku spoke up seeing the strategy. "You said that the Fox was broken into two parts, what does that mean?"

"A part of the nine tails chakra was broken off and sealed into something else," Hiruzen answered, skirting just what that meant. "Minato took this second seal with him so as to be able to influence the seal on his son from a distance." This was completely made up but should hopefully soothe the more frightened people on the council.

"Is Minato safe?" Shikaku asked, "After the boys death the Fox chakra could seek out it's other half and break his cover, right?"

Hiruzen frowned, the head of the Nara clan was getting too close to revealing little Mariko's burden. "The second seal is strong enough to hold the Fox in its entirety if necessary," he said calmly. Mariko, with her mother's help, should be able to hold. He hoped.

Shikaku blinked as he took in the Hokage's expression. 'The other half is sealed inside of Minato's other child, isn't it.' He felt sure in this guess.

"I have already contacted Minato and Kushina, asking what they want to do about those who murdered their son," Hiruzen stated, ignoring the question and noting those whose faces turned an unhealthy shade of white. There obviously were laws harming children but only one that would need the input of an Uzumaki and Hokage.

"This leads us to here and now," Hiruzen said. "ANBU, please take Dr. Nori and Mr. Tsuda away."

Instantly the people in question were surrounded and whisked away by the best of the village.

"Speaking of rumors," Inoichi spoke up while those who remained from civilian council stared at where their companions had vanished. "I was about to bring this one up: Dr Nori's wife was gossiping with mine about the rumor on Minato's son, she commented that it was impossible because he was a total animal when she saw him three days ago."

"Thank you for the input, Yamanaka-san" Hiruzen commented before fixing his eyes on those who remained. "There is going to be a purge in this village. Those found guilty of harming Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, son of the Fourth Hokage, heir to the Uzumaki clan, shall be punished to the full extent of the clan law."

More people faces paled, it was as some of them thought.

Clan Law was old, dating back to before the formation of the village and could be summarised as: "The clan head decides your fate." Clan law hadn't been used in years as too many saw it as barbaric, the clan head could demand anything from indentured service to death.

Such a law obviously didn't work in a village of multiple clans. Part of the village charter forbade an individual clan from pursuing this method of punishment, but at the same time no clan was willing to give this option up entirely as a 'price of admittance' into the village. As such, laws were put into place at the founding of the village that gave the power to choose clan law as punishment in the hands of the Hokage, only he/she was able to declare if Clans law would be used in any circumstance.

"Now then," Hiruzen said, pulling out his pipe. "There appears to be some vacancies in the civilian side of the council. We will convene later once these have been filled. Yamanka-san, Nara-san, Akamichi-san please stay, I wish to discuss some things with you regarding your clans."

Those the Hokage mentioned remained paralyzed to their seats while the others, even the elders sitting next to the Hokage, scattered like hens in a Inuzuka kennel. No one wanted to test the god of shinobi or the startlingly hard line he'd taken regarding those who harmed the jinchuriki.

* * *

September 28th 56VE

7:50pm

"Uf," Kagami let go of her rope as she landed on the ground, a folder full of old filles and a new blank one she had found stuffed into her belt. Smirking, she felt the need to pat herself on the back. In and out without an alarm. If she could fill the form out correctly and sneak it back in then she'd have a start to a bright future.

Looking back up at the way she came, Kagami stifled the joy as she realized that she might have not thought her plan all the way through. Her escape route was out of sight behind the building good, but leaving the escape rope there would announce to everyone that something had happened.

The rope was tied to a bookshelf near the back in the room, so there wasn't much she could do about it now, better to get as far away as she could before someone found it. Turning on her heel, she dashed down the road, sticking to side streets and very carefully waited when someone crossed her way.

Before too long, she was back on the road into the senju clan forest. 'I could wait here until things calm down,' Kagami thought, looking back. Judging from the state of the only building there, no one came in the forest at all.

Leaving that rope had been a stupid mistake. In fact, looking back, a lot of her plans had been half-baked in hindsight. Sneaking into the library, getting clothes, stealing a hat (and ending up with hair ties instead) and now the rope. Unacceptable.

Walking into the trees, Kagami plotted.

What she needed to do was plan, train, and train at planning. She would spend her time thinking up strategies to sneak into different places, the hospital, academy, maybe even the Hokage's office as practice.

Training would bring her into better connection with her body. Her rough 'training' match had done little more then let her test the change in her abilities, she need to find out more about what was her limits and find out some answers.

Lastly, she needed to wait for the alert she might have caused to settle. Maybe she could find or make some better tools to use out here while she waited.

Kagami paused as she passed through the clearing with the clan building in it, she was going to have to address that empty building soon. It was decked out in seals and scared her for some reason. At the same time, it was in her vicinity and she needed to know everything about what was around her in case of danger.

The most likely way in was using her blood and seeing if it opened but she was wary of this method after how they used the blood of Naruto in whatever they did to Kaa-sama. There was no way she'd spend a single moment longer in that building than she needed to if blood was needed to get in.

Pausing at the tree's boundaries, she tilted her head as she felt something. The building scared her, but at the same time something also pulled her towards it. It was almost magnetic how the building seemed to call to something deep in her gut.

Her head hurt a bit just looking at it, she blinked and for a second there seemed to be a much less destroyed version of the clan compound in its place before reality asserted itself.

'... There could be something interesting in there,' she eventually reasoned, looking at the abandoned building. For this place to be so empty and untouched by the rest of the village meant that they held either great respect or fear for it.

Both possibilities were attractive to her if she could just get past both the boundary and her fears. It might be worth it just to run in and search the building before getting out. She could do it.

Decision made, she moved back towards the trees. First she'd put her spoils in her den, then she could investigate.

* * *

September 28th 56VE

8:12pm

"I had hoped to be wrong about that," Shikaku said as the door to his house closed.

"I didn't see that coming," Inoichi responded as he looked at his former team members.

Knowing that Shikaku would discuss his thoughts with his former teammates, the Hokage had briefed the three clan heads on everything as soon as the room had emptied. Hiruzen had confirmed that Mariko was a Jinchuriki and that she would be training to utilize her part of the Kyuubi in time.

"At least we don't have to worry about the Kyuubi reforming in the middle of the village," Choza threw in his two cents as they moved to Shikaku's Office. If the fox had been reforming then his son would probably have been on the front line. It took a year for a tailed beast to reform one tail, meaning that their children all would have been about fifteen when the rampage would have happened.

"We might be safe from the Fox for now, but what about when Kushina-san gets here?" Shikaku asked, surprising the others. The head of the Nara clan sighed as he took in their shocked expressions. "You're both troublesome friends, you know that? Do you really think that the red hot habanero will be content dealing justice through letters?"

The two other clan leaders gulped. In their mind's eyes they could see it: A column of monstrous beings charging everyone who got in its way before stopping in front of the Hokage. An eye wreathed in flames looks down on the white haired man. "I see you!" a deep woman's voice declared.

That felt like a surprisingly accurate description of Kushina-chan's wrath.

"She could be even more destructive than the Kyuubi if she arrives in a bad mood," Choza admitted. Unsaid was how guaranteed it was that she would be in a bad mood.

"So what do we do?" Shikaku asked, bringing everyone full circle.

"I'm hunting down traitors in my clan," Inoichi responded. At their surprised looks he expounded, "Hidden techniques from my clan were found by the ANBU where Naruto's body was discovered."

"That's unsettling," Shikaku acknowledged, "I have a child who I think was friends with the boy, Asuna Nara. He was playing with Kirito Yamanaka and Hiroshi Akamichi along with Naruto when he was first seen in the village. They might be able to tell us about Naruto as a person."

"I've got nothing to add," Choza admitted with a frown. He didn't know anything about Naruto as they hadn't crossed paths, something that was odd now that he thought about it. The Akamichi grill had a free day once a year where it let all the orphanage workers and their charges have a free all you can eat dinner. He had never seen anyone who fit Naruto's description at any of the events.

A hand clapped him on the shoulder and he looked up to see Shikaku's reassuring smirk. "Talk to Hiro, then we'll figure out what to do next," he advised.

"Right," Choza responded, but decided then and there to do more.

"Now all we need to do is find a way to make our home brimstone proof and we'll be set," Inoichi said with a light hearted laugh.

* * *

September 28th 56VE

8:43pm

Kagami stood in the fading light as she observed the front of the clan building. After delivering her spoils to her den she had done awesome aerial maneuvers to blow off some stress and settle her nerves while regaining her resolve.

At least that's what she told herself she did, in actuality she had bounced around the trees and struck more poses in a shallow part of the stream until she felt better. Afterwards, she felt confident in tackling the building.

She couldn't see anything special about the wall she was examining no matter which way she looked at it, but as soon as she brought her hand near the structure sealing script would always show up. These lines of kanji poked at her memories, causing unpleasant shivers to crawl down her spine

Reaching out and touching it with a stick did nothing, neither did touching it directly with her hand. Stepping back, she tried spitting on it. No response. She had a feeling somewhere deep inside her that told her blood was necessary to remove the boundary.

She couldn't make heads or tails out of the script as everything she knew about Shinobi arts only included what Kaa-sama had taught her and the first chapter of the beginning book Naruto had red.

Deciding to go on her feelings, Kagami bit down hard on her finger and resolutely pressed it to the wall.

The lines on the wall seemed to come into focus around her finger, darkening until they were as bold as if they had been written on white paper instead of an old wall. Kagami jumped back as the kanji darkened, worried that something was off.

The lines hummed with power and pulsed once before fading away.

Surprised by the underwhelming response, the fox girl slowly approached the walls again. Reaching out with her stick produced no lines. Tentatively reaching out with her hand, Kagami's eyes widened as no symbols appeared at her touch. She had done it!

Moving to the entrance, Kagami carefully poked the door with her toe. It opened with a creak of disuse.

Stepping back, she waited anxiously for something to happen, for a trap of some kind to go off. When nothing did, Kagami moved forwards.

The yard beyond the door was overrun with weeds and disuse. Kagami shivered as something about this empty building filled her with a sense of dread.

The house proper was swiftly approaching a ruined state as there was a severe sag to the roof and piles of leaves that had been blown in through the paperless sliding doors littered the floor.

'Tsunade would play there,' she thought, looking at a twisted tree in the corner before she frowned. "Where did that come from?" she muttered in confusion. This place was driving her crazy.

Kagami hurriedly dashed through the yard and into the building before her nerve broke. There was dirt everywhere and visible rot on the walls, the smell of mildew seemed to press in on her. As the nervous fox girl moved through the building room by room, she slowly let a frown grow on her face.

Inside wasn't so bad, the rooms were bare of furniture or decoration and the floor trembled as she walked over it. The entire place was condemned, not filled with evil sealing spirits as part of her had thought.

'Why did I think there was something here?' she wondered, stepping into a room where the only difference between it and the last was a rotting carpet covered the ground.

Shaking her head, Kagami was about to turn back and leave the room when something caught her attention. There was a perfectly square spot on the wall about one foot by one foot that was completely untouched by the mildew that had taken over the rest of the room.

Biting her lip for a moment before shaking her head to rid herself of the habit, she examined the spot on the wall. The frightening headache she had gotten from the walls was back and it was coming from that perfect square of clear wood.

Walking over to the square, Kagami lifted her hand before looking at her finger in surprise. She wasn't cut anymore, it was completely healed over without a scab. Putting this out of her mind for now, the girl bit her finger again until it bled.

Pressing her finger to the square, she was again surprised when the square pushed against her before swinging open. Inside was twenty or so small unmarked books. Reaching out, she picked up the first one and opened to a random page.

"Stupid brother had to go leave me with everything except a plan or guide for how he wants his village ran." Kagami tilted her head in confusion, flipping through the pages revealed more and more similar sentences. Putting the book down she picked up the next one.

"Today elder brother bowed his head to the other kage at the meeting. It was so embarrassing to have to tell him to raise his head in front of everyone." Why did whomever wrote these books spend so much time complaining about their brother.

Opening a new one, she was starting to think that she had found a bunch of whinings instead of anything useful. "The first step to mastering the water element is-" Kagami blinked and stopped as she realized just what she held.

This was the personal journals of who Kaa-sama said was the most powerful water jutsu user and undisputed genius, The Nidaime Hokage. She NEEDED to exploit the hell out of these. Picking up as many as she could, she promised herself to come back for the rest.

Jogging out of the building- "AHEE!" She cried out more in surprise then pain as she tripped and went sprawling when a section of floor gave out from under her. "Ow," Kagami moaned. Now her ankle was skinned and dirty. "Stupid board, stupid foot. Kaa-sama would have chewed me out alive for being so stupid," she muttered, pitifully missing her mom.

A half memory flashed behind her eyes of a woman she had seen in the street kissing the knee of a small boy. Defiantly shaking her head, Kagami put the image and burning emotions they brought out of her mind.

Her skin regrew too quickly for a kiss anyway, she was surprised to realize. As she watched, the long scrape from her heel to half way up her calf had stopped bleeding and healed in the time she had been complaining. She gaped at the former injury in shock: she hadn't known just how bad she'd hurt her leg that morning and hadn't noticed her finger healing earlier. Watching her skin repair itself was a rather large shock to her.

The books had gone flying she realized after a moment. Standing up, she went to gather them.

One of the books had fallen open and was written in a different hand, a woman's. Picking it up she started reading. "-Is expected to arrive soon. I'm not sure if I should be happy or insulted at the council. The village is acting like I'm already in the ground with how they're carrying on. Kushina might be taking over my guarding of the Nine tails but I'm not gone yet. Poor child, she'll be all alone."

She knew this one person Kaa-sama had described like this, Seal Master Mito Senju (Nee Uzumaki). 'Something else to exploit,' she thought gleefully.

She felt accomplished now. Looking around, she found herself more at ease then ever before. She didn't like this place, but it wasn't as terrifying as before and books were a good bonus. It was a death trap waiting to happen though and she happily left it behind.

* * *

September 29th 56VE

10:43am

"Nature release is where the Shinobi manipulates their chakra to such a degree that one can reasonably assign an element distinction to it," Kagami read out loud as she tried to imitate the listed hand signs.

She had gathered all the books from the hidden shelf on the clan compound and brought them to her den the day before. After a night to sleep on things, she decided on spending the rest of the week reading then trying out some of the jutsu written in them before venturing back into the village.

The stories inside were interesting, but the trove of Water Jutsu and Chakra theory available was what really interested her, despite how hard it was to understand them. The second Hokage's journals talked about the hand seals used for this jutsu or the mechanics of that jutsu without giving a basis for her to understand. It was so confusing and went over her head sometimes. It was written like the Hokage was talking to another jounin or more likely himself than a beginner.

Understandable when you realize that this was a private journal but so annoying when you're the one who found the book in an abandoned building and want to learn from it.

Mito's journal was much easier to read whenever Fuinjutsu was involved, Kagami snidely thought that she wrote so simply because she was going senile or that it was for some other young Uzumaki to find and understand instead of her.

Either way, when reading these two journals side to side, it just felt easier to understand the old woman than the Hokage. Unfortunately, though, she didn't have any paper or ink to practice with until she went back into the village.

"What was the dog sign again?" She muttered, trying to remember. She might need to go back into the village again anyway just to get another copy of the basics.

"Grrr, why didn't Kaa-sama tell me more about hand signs?" she growled reaching up and pulling on her hair.

Apparently hand signs were the best way to manipulate chakra and were considered so basic to the Hokage that he hadn't mentioned them by anything other than by name. Kaa-sama hadn't shown her any, just described some to her, she was a bit at a loss as to what they looked like.

Maybe Kaa-sama hadn't known what they were? They were made to help hairless monkeys do jutsu after all, they just helped with manipulation unlike her Kaa-sama.

"Manipulation," she spat angrily. Every thing she read or heard about chakra included this word and yet it wasn't descriptive enough in her opinion. Did Manipulation mean there was some kind of pattern she made the chakra do in her arm? Did it mean manipulate your thoughts to think about the element you wanted to use? She didn't know and didn't have a way to answer because the Nidaime was so vague!

"Why can't you just draw a picture of the hand signs?!" She yelled at the book finally losing her temper with the pages. Stupid human things that they might be, she needed hand signs as she had nothing else to go on right now.

Sucking in a deep breath, she expelled her anger with the air in her lungs. Sinking to her knees, she thought, 'Maybe this nature manipulation was like the exercises Kaa-sama had Naruto doing before they took him.'

Either way, she was too wound up to continue right now. Getting back to her feet, she moved towards her small cave. She needed a larger den to hold things, the books had weighed heavily on her chest last night.

She was going to leave this village, she had decided on her way out and she'd do it even if it killed her. Leave all her bad memories behind of Naruto, her fear of people, and books that talked down to her! She'd live wherever she saw fit.

A flash of determination passed Kagami's face before a satisfied smirk grew on it. She would become a Shinobi, the lowest passing Kunoichi in the entire history of the village then desert for who knows where. No one would care for a nameless nobody. She'd have to be careful as to not draw attention in the academy, but she could do it.

She would do it. That'd be her long term goal; see the world, travel wherever she wanted, wherever there weren't people to hurt her. She Would Do It!

She just needed to prepare herself.

'Step four, build a Den worthy of her, her mother's child, and prepare to leave this hellscape,' she thought as she reached for the fall wall of her den to pull away the first hand full of dirt.

* * *

 **I watched too much LoTR before writing.**

 **A turning point has been reached.**

 **The question of "Should I stay or should I go" has been answered.**

 **Kagami is leaving the village.**

 **REVIEWS**

 **To all who commented on the stay/go: thank you for your thoughts.**

 **Airog: I like Kagami because I feel it says something about her, while many of the names suggested to me were good most they were already linked to fox spirits/youkai character and I wanted one that was personal to her and not other fox beings. I'm not seeing much chance for Kagami and Sasuke to get together romanticly but a friendship, even one sided might appear .**

 **amerdism: Kagami doesn't know anything about her abilities as I hoped this chapter showed, she basically is going to need to learn what her abilites are. I described her in a bit more detail in this chapter, let me know if it wasn't good enough.**

 **AmethystEspeon: I plan on choosing between a village or just roaming based on what rumors Kagami gets exposed to in the village, which option do you think works best just on reputation? I'm thinking Iwa, Kumo and Suna have the best chances of attracting her in that order. Gaara pairing is a posibility😍.**

 **Azaira: I'm not sure stumbling upon Mariko is in the cards just because of simple chance, Mariko is with Minato and Kushina but that could be in any dirrection. Her Biju level skills are going to include something ilusion related, it's already been shown😁. Hidden menace is guaranteed. Kyuubi won't be reforming, but I'm** **debating weither or not the piece in Mariko gains sentience (thoughts are welcome).**

 **IrinaAkashira: Hope this helps with my attendence issues. I don't think she'd join the Akatsuki because they seek out members. She'd have to get a reputation as an S-rank Shinobi before they even think about approching her and she doesn't want one, it would be funny but I'm not sure it'd happen. Minato and Kushina are going to be decided in the next chapter. Reconciliation with Minato and Kushina is in the cards but looking further and further out of reach the more I think about it. OPINIONS GIVEN!**


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